Wingardium Leviosa!!

zee last post here

2006-09-08T22:13:00.000+08:00

Extra, extra! Hear all about it!

This blog is moving! Ask me at

or just txt me if you want to know the new URL.

(A couple of Paul Twohills = Paul Fourhill. Hoho.)

2006-09-04T01:34:00.000+08:00

Deepest regret to those using Firefox - a very unfortunate twist of coding/script-fates and IE users now can see my blog with the proper cell padding and other settings, while Firefox users get to see an eye-stab-inducing version of my blog. columns all over the place, weird formatting, no more separators, silly styles.

If it doesn't fix itself (HA!) in the next few days or so, then I think I'll be getting a new template...

Meanwhile, live with it, will ya!

2006-08-30T14:52:00.000+08:00

Not sure why, but MickyD's tagline for the so-called new and improved Grilled Chicken Foldover evokes hilarious imagery in my mind.

"... Sleeker size, smaller price!"

Smart choice of words there. In this case, sleeker = smaller & thinner.

Hmmm. Sleeker... I can almost imagine the aerodynamically designed chicken foldover sailing through the air over the counter onto my tray. Woohoo!!~

And I was rudely reminded of why I hate Coke Light: It tastes absolutely revolting. Not only does it lack the punchy oomph that regular Coke has (Aspartame galore!!), it's supposed to be healthier too. Knowing that I'm eating healthy food doesnt evoke in me feelings of satisfaction or pleasure, unlike some other people I know.

2006-08-29T22:24:00.000+08:00

I feel young today.

Because some street surveyor outside JP asked me whether I was just shopping at JP or whether I was a student at NTU.

Well, at least he thought I might be a student and didn't say something like 'are you just shopping at JP or do you work here?'

Yes, this is a good sign. Despite the fact that he asked me the question in Mandarin. While I was wearing my headphones. -_-

Anyway, I was out when I spotted a bunch of kids with Von Dutch bags. Ubiquitous, you say. But I wonder how many people (in this country, at least) know who or what on earth is Von Dutch? Or Abercrombie & Fitch, for that matter?

FYI, Von Dutch a.k.a Kenny Howard was a motorcycle mechanic, eccentric, artist, pinstriper, metal fabricator, knifemaker, and gunsmith.

And, did you know ...

... that A&F was originally an 'elite sporting goods retailer' for many decades since it opened in 1892?

... their clientele consisted of mostly 'big-game hunters, fishermen, and outdoorsmen'?

... A & F not only outfitted wealthy people, it also outfitted some of America's most influential leaders and celebrities on their excursions?

... author Ernest Hemingway is said to have bought the gun he used to commit suicide at Abercrombie & Fitch?

Haha. I like the last one. But really, I think it's mostly a commercial move that (eventually) made A & F turn to selling 'casual luxury' apparel to the younger demographics (kids 7-14 and college students 18-24). A pretty darn successful business move, if you ask me.

Read for yourself here and here.

I love wikipedia. Seriously, I spend hours just trawling through the entries, going from link to link, reading and learning about stuff I never knew about before. Intriguing! Entertaining! Did I mention that I love wikipedia?

2006-08-23T13:00:00.000+08:00

Just uploaded a bunch of photos at my multiply site, including one album of so-called "Behind the Scenes" photos taken by yours truly at the sister's wedding photo shoot. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on who you are) I am not wearing a dress or anything remotely feminine. So there you have it. Enjoy!

P.S. Might be starting a new blog for the Spot-A-Snapple project that has been on hiatus for what, six months? Hopefully it'll be a reader involvement thing, so everyone can send in pictures with Snapple Apples!! Either that or I'm just too ambitious and I'll just put up my own photos. Hoho.

P.P.S Just realized that in IE, the template's tables are skewed and both columns are too close to each other! Never noticed that cos I haven't used IE in ages. Shites. Jess! Any idea how to fix it?!

2006-08-20T14:29:00.000+08:00

Sophie Scholl, anyone?

Got beeped and asked if I wanted to see this show. Coincidentally, I was planning on seeing it (and now, have already seen it) Pretty good show, considering how bad the subtitles were on my copy of the film. I wonder if the DVD's already out?

I was quite surprised at the length (116 mins I think), pretty long for a show that covers the last few days of Sophie Scholl's life. At the start of the film I was expecting a bit more background or bit of history, but the film dove right into the specific act that got Sophie and her brother caught by the Gestapo.

But then again, Hard Candy was pretty long for a show about 2 people in a house, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

Julia Jentsch bears quite a bit of a resemblance to the real Sophie Scholl, I realized after doing a bit of googling... oh I meant, after doing a few Google searches. (Last I heard, the search engine bigwigs aren't too happy about people using google as a verb as opposed to a noun. They're gonna start suing people soon, mark my words...) I'm too lazy to post pictures for comparison, so go check them out yourself.

I never heard of Sophie Scholl before this. Tsk tsk to myself, SS was a legendary German anti-Nazi activist. And I don't understand German except for 'thank you', 'one more time please', 'very good' and 'not good' (all thanks to my German lesson-taking piano teacher trying to practise her German and making me do my scales over and over again).

But I figure she's probably one heck of a brave woman. (And of course Jentsch is a superb actress as well.) The dialogue scenes between her and Mohr(?), the guy interrogating her (played by Alexendar Held) were nothing short of riveting. As she expertly crafts her alibis and vehemently denies involvement in the distribution of anti-Nazi flyers, I almost want to believe her, except I know she's lying. Little wonder Mohr believes her and almost releases her, until a search of her home turns up a bunch of incriminating evidence, and then Held simply blows up in frustration at her nonchalant denial and supposed disinterest in all things political.

It's quite sad for Mohr though. From his sessions with Sophie, he is clearly impressed by her intelligence, courage, persistence and brutal honesty, and even offers her a way out in exchange for the names of her other White Rose members, an offer that she declines. The poor guy is stuck in a situation where he admires the girl's qualities and wants to give her a lighter sentence, but she adamantly refuses to cave in and continues to criticize his beloved Hitler and the Third Reich, whom he feels he owes his current job and status to.

Oh, and there's this chief justice or judge guy who's in charge of her sham of a trial, who pretty much hurls abuses at Sophie & co. during the trial. Obviously he's supposed to be the 'bad guy' sort of character and viewers are just supposed to want to kill him (which I really felt like), but gosh, he looks and sounds like he's gonna either have an aneurysm or just collapse from anger while he's talking to Sophie & co. about their 'crimes'.

It's a long show, and not without the slower, less eventful parts, but it's really in these moments e.g. when Sophie's alone in her cell, when she's talking to her cellmate, that you really see the emotional strength in her character. You know she's freaked out as hell (I know I would, with the Gestapo convinced I was guilty of treason... dude, it's Hitler's Third Reich!) but she exudes a sense of quiet dignity and courage while in Gestapo custody. Slowly, you start seeing through the façade, though, through the little smiles she exchanges with her brother when they pass in the corridor, or when she talks to her cell-mate about her fiancé who's been fighting on the Eastern front for the past 6 months, who doesn't agree with her methods of activism, but still loves her as unconditionally as she does, him. Or when she forces herself not to cry after bidding her parents goodbye for the last time, knowing that they understand all that she did, and that she would do the same thing over again if she had a choice. It is through all these little things that you start to look beyond the tough exterior of a war heroine and notice her vulnerability, her Christian beliefs, the longing that she's got hidden away because of her political ideals and her love for the German people.

------------------------

Spent half a day at the Moving Minds forum yesterday, and listened to a bunch of (sort of) flim-related people, including co-directors of Talking Cock: the movie and the website. Don't usually read the stuff at talkingcock.com, but still, I decided to take a look after the forum yesterday, and came across this hilariously penned, I mean typed, article:

STB Aims to Attract More Hungry Ghosts

The Singapore Tourism Board today announced a multimillion hell-dollar campaign to attract more Hungry Ghosts to attend the Hungry Ghost Festival.

“Every year, the Hungry Ghost or Seventh Month Festival attracts thousands of spirits to Singapore,” said STB spokesman Ms Hooyagonna Kaur. “We aim to pump resources into boosting visits, sorry, sorry, visitation figures over the next few years.”

According to Ms. Kaur, the STB will concentrate on providing a wider variety of tourism options for visitors from beyond. “For instance, we can innovate much more in terms of dining options for spectral visitors than the current buffet of fruit, roast meats and steamed pastries. Why not add chili crab, prata, fish head curry and satay too? I mean, these ghosts are supposed to be hungry, right?”

Ms. Kaur was pleased to note that local getais and auctions are a great draw for phantom tourists. “Many MediaCorp artistes are involved in getais and who should know better about delivering a hellish entertainment experience than MediaCorp?”

“We also want to attract more than just Chinese ghosts,” added Ms. Kaur. “We want to attract spectres from all over the world and make Singapore a real global haunted hub.”

To that end, the STB will be setting up a tourist information booth in Hell using the slogan, “Go to Singapore!”

Preliminary indications are that the campaign will be a success.

Said supernatural sightseer Mr. Yeow Kwee, “I already come to Singapore every year, because it’s a great place for spooks. I mean it’s full of zombies, and run by all these shadowy figures in white - some even say the devil himself - so they really understand our needs.”

Some non-Asian horrors, however, remain unpersuaded, like Dr. A. Cula of Transylvania. “For zer people vhere I come from,” he explained. “Ve vant to suck a lot of blutt. But ve hear zat zer Gafferment of Zingapore has already sucked most of the blutt from zer people, so zat is not a great incentive.”

------------------------

HAHAHAHAHA!!

(The original article can be found here.)

2006-08-16T21:51:00.000+08:00

Bus 179 is actually a tin of sardines in disguise.

2006-08-15T23:16:00.000+08:00

It's only been my first news-writing tutorial and I've already been labelled 'dangerous' and 'libelous'. Well, at least my writing has been labelled as such, while I have to settle for possibly being sued by the fictitious political bigwigs in a writing assignment. Terribly exciting way to kick off a new semester, doncha think?

2006-08-14T21:36:00.000+08:00

[Long post alert]

For some confounded reason, everytime I am bursting with things I want to post, I'm always supposed to be doing other supposedly more important things, like readings and assignments.

And when I finally finish all top priority things, I forget most of what I started out wanting to post.

So in a bold move, I have decided to leave all my extremely urgent and important work (due tomorrow!) and post before more stuff evaporates from the recesses of my brain.

2 weeks into my final year and I'm already behind on my readings. Not that I'm trying to keep up or anything, but just making such a statement already makes things look so bad. media law readings are sheer madness. I feel like I'm killing trees just printing the stuff out, but there isn't much of a choice because it's wayyyy too lengthy to read off the screen and I really don't see the need to increase my myopia.

Not quite looking forward to the first 203 tutorial tomorrow (yes, 203 is a second-year subject and I am taking it only now not out of choice.) For one thing, I haven't read the required newspapers to be able to comment on articles and all. Probably will grab the paper from last Saturday and skim through it quickly over a coffee before the class tomorrow.

The happening Fong Seng prata outing was postponed due to the Lian's sudden OT at work, so oh well, nothing to look forward to after a 3.5hr media law lecture. Interestingly, the class was really quite intriguing, and I didn't even feel the urge to yawn or anything. Now, if only acing the exam would be just as easy.

FYP's moving along slowly but surely, but I guess it's really not much of a choice, since we want to send out the grant application by the end of the week. Coming up with bios for the project is terribly difficult, which only serves to remind me of my extreme lack of experience in my chosen field. Uh oh. One good thing though, after a in-depth recce of Marcus' room, we have concluded that it is suitable for group meetings and so-called slumber parties (aka the whole group concuss in his room after overnight non-stop editing. Sleeping bags not provided.)

Had a short chat with Fungster during the 45-minute break during 401, which is pretty generous, if you ask me, except I really wouldn't mind having only 15 minutes, and ending class half an hour earlier.

Oops I digress. Yes, I had a short chat with her and we talked about China, her good ol' hometown, touring Yunnan, a certain schoolmate's new girlfriend, the sad truth about FYP, and even intellectual incest (this really isn't as bad as it looks/sounds here).

And I realized how much I missed being in Atlanta. Albeit only a 6-month stint, so much happened over there and there were only 3 of us there to really talk. We shared so much there that coming back here and meeting up so much less made me feel like I left a part of my life and emotional development back there. It's made me stronger, but I wish it could be around all the time. Instead, back here, my apathy has reached startling levels, with age, experience, and even more so, the conclusion of my 6-month working stint.

But enough about depressing things already, I dragged myself to watch Hard Candy at PS, braving a bad bout of gastric flu, nausea, and HALF THE POPULATION OF ALL SINGAPOREAN STUDENTS ON HALF-DAY HOLIDAY DUE TO NATIONAL DAY. Good LORD! If only I had remembered earlier that kids would be dressed in red and white, all happy and patriotic after singing about their Island Home, waving cute little flags in time. Now, this wouldn't be so bad if they had gone home and STAYED home after that.

But nooooo, they had to be so happening and watch movies at PS! Because of the crazy queue at the ticket counters, which is almost as visually astounding as the 179 queue at Boon Lay (except made up of prepubescent kids instead of jaded college kids), I bought my ticket to Hard Candy only 25 minutes after the supposed starting time of the show.

Calculating backwards, I knew that PS aired 20 minutes of commercials, so I would only be missing about 5-10 minutes of the show. And my extremely logical and quick-witted mind decided that if I really liked the show, I would probably get the DVD to check out the front bit and to watch the show again. And if I hated it, the first 5-10 minutes wouldn't matter at all, so it was a win-win situation (yay! haven't had one of these in a while now.)

Here's my take on the film (spoilers within):

(Disclaimer: I've only hazy memories of the film now, that's what school does to you. So I probably need to watch it again to get a better feel of it.)

Hard Candy isn't really as gruesome as I had half-expected it to be, based on movie reviews, IMDB, and friend's comments. But then again, I'm not really the squeamish kind (I think?), at least not in movies, so the benchmark is kind of skewed anyway.

For a 103 minute (according to IMDB) film, it's got a tremendous pull to it, considering how it's really only about 2 characters, and is almost entirely inside one house. In every shot, you see either Ellen Page, Patrick Wilson, or both of them. It's a tricky film to make, and for being able to pull it off, I think a large part of the credit has to go to Page and Wilson.

It's really quite a psychological thriller thing and really plays with your mind so much. We never do see all the stuff in Jeff's hidden safe (it's just Hayley's reaction), and we're not quite sure whether Jeff died in the end or not.

And (spoiler alert) I didn't realize that Jeff was never castrated. No, seriously! I thought the binder clip was really to stem the flow of blood, and I never did hear the supposed line where he claims he's 'all here', according to posts on IMDB. And the tape from the VCR? I thought the label was there to mock him and his loss, as opposed to what many suggest on IMDB - that it's really a surgical procedures tape that she played for him to make him think it was happening to him. Hmm.

The castration part I admit, I probably didn't listen hard enough, but the part where he confesses on the roof? I blame it on the silly theater usher who chose this crucial plot development point in the movie to come in and check the ID of some kid sitting 5 rows in front of me. Sheesh. I'm gonna have to watch this show again, probably on my computer so I can hear better.

One thing I did note about the film was it's sometimes awkward shots. Makes me wonder whether indie film directors deliberately use odd shots that deviate from the usual rules of framing, e.g. subject is half in frame and the other half is empty, or not moving the camera to follow the subject, thus leaving the frame empty for a second or two.

If it's become a indie-film prerequisite to have against-the-Hollywood-rules style, then it's sort of becoming a anti-Hollywood thing. Is it just me, or is it slowly losing its freedom-of-expression and freedom-to-do-anything thing? Gah. Maybe I'm just watching too many mega blockbusters these days.

More updates on HC when I finally get a copy of it. For now it's back to R E A D I N G S...

2006-08-10T21:00:00.000+08:00

Would write a bit about Hard Candy, but I need someone to invent an instant cure for stomach cramps STAT. Hell, they should be giving out research grants and nobel prizes for this subject matter already.

2006-08-07T09:14:00.000+08:00

I'm early for classes on the first day of the semester. Let's hope this never happens again. I am so bored sitting here, since 0830 even though my lecture's only at 1100. And all this because I was lazy to take the bus.

At least it's all peace and quiet now, after a whole flock of dunno year 1 or 2 kids were herded into the LT for their lecture. All I know is I don't recognize a single one of them, and that if another kid comes up to me and asks where LT 1 or TR 1 is, I'll put up a info desk sign and start greeting people. What is it with them anyway? I'm clearly tired, black-faced and cranky, and yet they still come up and ask me questions. Those cows.

And there's this slight nausea thing going on. Some kind of weird-ass stomach thing that's making me insanely uncomfortable. Please tell me it's just a first-day-of-school thing and not a sickness thing.

It's weird coming back to school. Olly walked past, Harry Potter.. I mean Duffy walked past, probably wondering who this deviant, zao-lecture student is.

Headache, nausea, fatigue, yup. All the symptoms of school blues again.

(Going to watch Hard Candy later! Hope I don't fall asleep after a 3.5hr lecture!)

In Taiwan!

2006-08-03T13:58:00.000+08:00

Hogging the business center's PC (free access!), but am sunburnt like a well-done lobster! Just missing the warm melted butter. With the bright red contrasting my very pasty-white un-tanned skin, I'm all ready for this year's NDP.

2006-07-27T23:47:00.000+08:00

Highlight of the week: Logging tapes at the National Archive.

And not just any old tapes. I've been going through archive tapes of National Day Parades since the whole thing started, i.e. 1966. At 8 hours a day for 3 days in a row, I'm developing an aversion for anything NDP-esque. Military bands, guards of honor, silly salutes, pointless prancing on the Padang, propaganda-style items about how progressive (70s & 80s), how futuristic (80s & 90s) and how fantastic (90s and 2000s) we are.

There were some fun moments too. Like when a goofy-looking Samuel Chong hosted the NDP in the 80s, when Huang Wen Yong and Xiang Yun appeared on stage at NDP, when there were truly bizarre dances and singers (nothing like the Kit Chan, Stef Sun, Tanya Chua types) with retro hairstyles and clothing, singing on stage. Very nice. My friend and I laughed so hard we decided to take some pictures for future enjoyment.

(Stills taken from NDP 1987)

Gah, back to more NDP again tomorrow!

WOAH!!

2006-07-26T23:42:00.000+08:00

Monopoly Takes a Chance on Plastic

Nifty! No more slipping paper money under the game board, or having wads of cash strewn all over the table/floor... but at twice the price of a regular cash-version of Monopoly? Hmmm.

2006-07-20T21:12:00.000+08:00

I wanna watch this!

"A smart, charming teenage girl, Hayley probably shouldn’t be going to a local coffee shop to meet Jeff, a 30-something fashion photographer she met on the Internet. But Hayley’s ready to have fun, and soon she’s mixing screwdrivers at Jeff’s place and stripping for an impromptu photo shoot. It’s Jeff’s lucky night – until his vision blurs and he passes out."

... (for full synopsis/trailer/more info, go here.)

It's an indie film described as 'an edge-of-your-seat psychotic thriller', and stars Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde from X-Men 3) and Patrick Wilson (Raoul from Phantom of the Opera).

I read some reviews (and in the process, read some spoilers...), and downloaded the trailer. It looks and sounds like an absolutely emotionally turbulent show! Indie flicks usually tend to steer clear from typical Hollywood film-making styles, and Hard Candy looks set to do the same, whether in terms of employed film techniques or explored story angles and character layers.

Yay for good indie flicks!

But of course, Hollywood does work its magic too, this time in the form of Pirates of the Caribbean 2... and Deppy! Yesterday, I sounded like the Kraken in the movie, thanks to my semi-lost voice (see HCMC post). Unfortunately, as of today, my voice is pretty much back. So no more Kraken-imitating contests for a long time. The Fee-ster should be prancing for joy now.

Anyway, once again, the school (and its governing bodies/subsidiaries) delivers its regular dosage of hilarity/absurdity to our computers via the good ol' innernet. The following is the last part of a short announcement urging students to respond to a certain web survey:

Okay, I added those red arrows for dramatic effect, but were they really THAT afraid that people would not be able to see the "click here to take survey" link and thus fail to respond to their survey?

Or were they simply trying to ensure that whoever didn't fill up their survey didn't do it because they didn't want to, and NOT because they couldn't find the button to take them to the survey?

Because I'm sure there are gazillions of students who want to respond, but can't find the link, who are dying to spend anything between 5 and 50 minutes filling the school's fantastically-crafted survey, who want to help better the lives of everyone, to bring about world peace and whatnot.

(Cue Kraken sound FX!)

HCMC - Of road-crossing and shopping

2006-07-17T13:29:00.000+08:00

The most important lesson I learnt during my 3 days in Ho Chi Minh City : Crossing the roads in a non-life-threatening manner, despite the daunting 50+ motorbikes and cars/buses/trucks coming at me each time I try to cross the road, and pedestrian crossings are just for show.

Traffic stopping at a traffic light. Rare sight in HCMC, where traffic lights are just a matter of convenience - stop if you feel like it, or if there's a policeman nearby. Otherwise, ride on!

It's amazing how the motorists and pedestrians live in such harmony. Honking in HCMC doesn't mean someone's pissed at you for haphazard driving or road-crossing. All it means is a friendly "Coming through!" or "Watch out, I'm nearby!" You hear more honking there than you hear 'Lai, sio ah!' (local slang for 'get outta my way, hot food coming through!') in all the food centres in Singapore combined. No kidding.

It takes guts to cross the road in HCMC, but you either take that step out on to the road or you wait till the sun sets before some kindly local decides to help you cross the road (and that's not even guaranteed.) Interestingly, you just need to move slowly (but steadily) across the road. Bikes and cars will almost certainly weave their way around you, as if you're some giant obstacle that sprouted up in the middle of the road. They'll honk for sure, but like I said earlier, it's a non-malicious honk (as are most honks in Vietnam). They're just telling you to be careful. No hard feelings, it's the way of life there!

Just make sure you don't make sudden movements, because they may be intending to swerve in the direction you're moving and then, if they don't have time to swerve away from you, WHAM, accident happens. If you can't visualize that, try picturing you walking on a pavement, and someone comes up in front, walking in the opposite direction.

The eternal question of 'Should I move left? Or right?' comes up, and then if both of you swerve, there's always the possibility that you'll both move into each other's path. So the trick is to wait till someone moves first, then you move in the other direction. Said method applies to crossing roads in HCMC.

Oh, and I lost my voice. It started with a painful-like-having-a-hole-in-the-side-of-the-throat sore throat, to having absolutely no-voice, and finally to a very hoarse voice situation. And all this inconvenience amidst the bargaining I had to do while shopping!

Speaking of shopping, wow! It's very much like BKK, but I guess, with less tourists? There are definitely tourists, you'll see them some of them sporting the silly red shirts with yellow stars on them (locals wouldn't be caught dead in them), carrying cameras (me: guilty), or with the regulation tourist hat that the mother is soooo fond of. In her defence, she's very much a supporter of the sun-is-bad-for-the-skin, which isn't untrue, and probably the reason why she has better skin than both the sister and I.

Ironically, she's probably also the reason why the doorman at the hotel greeted me with a respectful 'konichiwa!' I nearly fainted, by the way. I look Japanese? Wow. Then I realized it was probably because of the mother's hat.

HCMC is the place to go if you're into sporty stuff like adidas/nike dri-fits and backpacks (ranging from the smaller daypacks to the 60-liter 'backpacker' backpacks). Between Ben Thanh market (closes at 6pm, but there's a night market after that) and Saigon Square, there's tons of branded stuff , from clothes to wallets, bags, sunglasses, watches, and no way of telling whether they're real or imitation. The father's opinion is that most of the stuff is original, except they're unlicensed (e.g. factory surplus), which explains the dirt-cheap prices.

Price-wise, they're dirt cheap. S$8 for dri-fits, S$10 upwards for leather wallets, not sure about the bags, didn't buy, but for around S$20, you can get a pretty decent huge-ass backpack. If you're into snowboarding, or need cold-weather stuff, head to Saigon Square, where there's a air-conditioned shop with everything you need for a perfect snowboard trip (except the snowboard...). jackets, snowboard pants, bags, windbreakers, other clothes too.

They also have the usual A&F, Hollister, Old Navy, Gap etc. One store along the road outside the Continental Hotel proclaimed to be the factory outlet for said brands, but it was closed. But generally, I didn't see a lot of them, maybe because I wasn't looking (most of the brands have insanely small sizing, which is probably good for 'Asian' sizing, except I'M NOT TYPICALLY ASIAN-SIZED!) Besides, every other person is wearing one of those brands. Nah. I like my spoof A&F shirt better (thanks to Meatbar's sharp eye).

HCMC's city centre is quite small, and almost everywhere you can find shops selling traditional products (lacquered handicraft items, wooden/rattan furniture, very zen-looking or typically Asian lamps/paintings/other decorative stuff, silk or linen clothing/accessories). There are the upmarket boutiques which you can spot by either the decor or the price tags (in USD), but the smaller shops also sell similar stuff. If you're insanely particular about quality, you're better off at the boutiques, but beware of the price premium.

The food's not bad, and prices are good (they often quote USD for tourists, but you can ask for the VND price.) The keyword is bargain. It's expected. They'll punch their asking price into a calculator if they dont' speak much english, and if you're not willing to pay that amount (you better not be!) you're expected to punch in your offer. A reasonable offer is just below what you're willing to pay for it. Probably around two-thirds of their starting asking price.

HCMC is also about an hour and a half away from the Mekong Delta, where you can go move around on little boats. Did you know the Mekong runs through SIX countries? They are: China's Yunnan province, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Whee, I feel more educated already.

Go to HCMC! It's only an hour-and-a-half's plane ride away. Speaking of planes, I stupidly forgot about my pocket-knife that hangs perpetually with my keys, and brought it on my hand-carry luggage. Interestingly, Singaporean customs didn't catch it, but their Vietnamese counterparts did. So I had it with me in the plane to HCMC, but it got confiscated before I could board my flight back.

AND, speaking of sub-standard security, I was told to keep a luggage tag for collecting my item back in SG's lost-and-found counter. So I was pretty bummed about having to wait till all the checked-in luggage started going round the baggage carousel.

While waiting, this industrial-sized plastic tray came trotting along the belt. The father spotted my pocket-knife next to another bag of stuff, and tried to pick it up, while I tried to give the guy waiting for the tray the luggage tag.

The guy, an elderly chinese man, said smilingly in Mandarin, "Oh this is yours? Yes, just take it! No need to give me the tag, just take can already!" And while I stood there, wondering whether I should just give him the tag anyway, he said, "Is this (pointing to a remaining bag of stuff in the tray) yours also? Come, take it too, don't need to give me a tag, just take!"

Do I have an incredibly honest face, or is the guy just slack? Hmmm.

Just for kicks, here's a hilarious picture of the pocket-knife "tagged with" (read: engulfed by) the luggage tag. Try spotting the knife.

Kinda small and unwieldy to be a terrorist weapon, if you ask me. I'm probably better off using the butter knife the airline provides.

Time for a honey-break for my throat.

2006-07-10T23:01:00.000+08:00

Weirdly scary incident:

I was waiting for my bus along the AYE and a bus pulled up into the bus bay, since it wasn't my bus, I didn't get up from my seat. I looked away from the bus, but not before noticing the bus' headlights flashing. A little like hazard lights, except it was the headlights, not the yellow signal lights.

I thought it was some kind of mechanical malfunction or something, so I ignored it. There was this lady waiting to board the bus, but the bus driver didn't open the door, so the lady was waiting there.

The lights continued to flash till I looked up at the driver, and he was looking at me, gesturing with his head/eyes whether I wanted to get up the bus.

?????????

Obviously I shook my head and then looked away. but what the ...??! Sheesh!

In unrelated matters, Ah Fee is hereby dubbed The Hobo, or LSG, for Lying Shabby Girl. Go ask her if you want to know the reason for the new name.

Also, I've taken up a new one-day-a-week internship. Wonder what I've gotten myself into!

2006-07-05T12:50:00.000+08:00

Germany is out.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

:(

2006-07-04T00:21:00.000+08:00

Presenting....

A piccie with the sistey!!

More to come. (maybe.)

2006-06-30T15:44:00.000+08:00

These days I'm into making lists. I've been working on one for the sister, still incomplete at the moment, but I just decided to make one while sitting in Seok's car today on the way to lunch.

Lessons Learnt During My 6-month Internship
(also known as the politically-incorrect lessons that
you'll never see in my PI report.)

Lesson # 1 - Alcohol in decent amounts is good. Of course, decent is subjective, but basically enough to get you woozy and high, but just before you feel the urge to hurl, is a fairly decent amount, in my opinion. I didn't drink much or at all until in recent years, and as I told my ex-colleagues, I probably drank more during the past 6 months than in my entire life combined.. Very useful for ranting/bitching/stoning.

Lesson # 2 - Chronic stupidity or lack of common sense is still widespread. But seriously, out of a hundred production houses here, what are the odds of one sitting right next to me? Moral of the story, never overestimate anyone, especially 19 year-old guys who claim to be one of the more production-knowledgeable people in their cohort, but yet, displays a severe lack of common sense and has daily occurences of stupid questions.

Lesson # 3 - People in this world (mostly corporate clients, really) think that money can buy you anything and everything. They pay you for a job, and they expect you to be at their beck and call 24/7. And they don't even pay THAT well.

Lesson # 4 - Never volunteer to do or lend anything to anyone unless you are absolutely certain that there will be no backlash, e.g the assumption from that point onward that it is your rightful duty do it forever and ever.

Lesson # 5 - The human body is amazing. Adaptable and resillient, I was waking up half an hour before my alarm, and sleeping 6 hours a day, for the better part of 6 months. Not something I would have thought possible. I didn't take a day's MC throughout the 6 months. Interestingly, I did fall ill after I stopped working. And these days, I sleep like a log for 12 hours or more.

Lesson # 6 - Age is NOT a reliable indicator of sanity or maturity in colleagues. 'nuff said.

Okay I'm tired, so this list shall end here. Besides, the father just waltzed into the room after coming home from the airport, and he waved this Changi Airport lucky draw prize at me (yes, my family always wins odd things at lucky draws):

What, I look like a bear collector? Or do I look like a bear? Family reunion, huh??! ROARRR!!

2006-06-27T13:31:00.000+08:00

The fever/flu/sorethroat bug is here to visit again. Medicines don't seem to work. Merde.

Despite the end of work, I'm still busy busy busy. Obviously not as much as before, but with the sister married and all, it kinda falls to me to run these errands, cos I'm the second eldest (after my sister) in this generation on my dad's side. It makes me wonder how single children do it, they don't have siblings to share the load, take turns etc.

After meeting the coordinator, FYP seems quite a daunting thing. It's not the work, per se, but also, the responsibilities, both to the project and to the other group members. Let's hope it all works out fine and we all don't get too bruised from this battle.

Been feeling disinterested in a lot of things lately. Wonder if it's just the illness and the interim period between work and school.

2006-06-15T08:57:00.000+08:00

I hate to say this, but reading THIS makes me want to play pingpong again.

2006-06-10T20:46:00.000+08:00

The sister got married!

2006-05-29T10:32:00.000+08:00

Airbus turns to robots for in-flight emergencies

Posted May 27th 2006 11:14PM by Donald Melanson

The Wall Street Journal reports that Airbus is planning on turning the controls of its planes over to Skynet friendly onboard computer copilots in case of emergencies like an impending midair collision. Currently, pilots are trained to turn off the autopilot when they encounter an emergency and maneuver the plane to safety themselves. But Airbus thinks that pilots sometimes overreact in such situations, unneccessarily shaking up the passengers (at best). The company plans to install the system on its A380 jet as early as next year and eventually install them on all their aircraft. Pilots, not suprisingly, are none too pleased with the move; Air Line Pilots Association safety offical Larry Newman says it's leading to pilots getting further and further away from the process of responding to emergencies themselves (well duh). Not to mention the whole, you know, robots making decisions that could directly affect hundreds or thousands of human lives thing. For its part, Boeing has said it will continue to rely on human pilots in case of emergencies.

(Taken from here.)

Somehow, I don't quite fancy a robot handling my airplane emergency manoeuvres.

2006-05-27T14:35:00.000+08:00

I'm writing from the backseat of the car, parked outside a wedding gown store, where sistey and brudder-in-law-to-be are talking to the owner. Yes I'm the bridesmaid, but I don't care much for their discussion about the flowers to be on the car.

And yes, I will be wearing a dress. Gosh, it's so stressful wearing a dress that's as tall as I am. At the risk of sounding all normal girly girl, I hereby resolve to go on a diet. Not that I can't fit the dress, but you see, that beer belly accumulated over the past 6 months is quite scary, even to me, so... yeah. (ooh, yummy old chang kee curry puff that i just finished in the midst of typing!~)

I'm left with 15 more days of work, minus 5 days of leave that I'm taking. Yay.

Car's moving off! no more wifi!

2006-05-17T12:53:00.000+08:00

The boss lost his BlackBerry in Ben & Jerry's.

I don't know why but I just get so tickled by this. LOL.

2006-05-16T21:55:00.000+08:00

Oh. My. Goodness.

For a moment there I really thought it was a joke, or I was simply seeing things.

Release date and platform - 23 May, on the Xbox 360.

Yikes.

2006-05-14T13:11:00.000+08:00

Je suis fatiguee, as usual, more so now that I just sit around with Fee's rubik cube and twist away with a newfound maniacal vengeance.

While I am on it, check out JG with baby Violet...

Love the ear things on the hat. It just makes anyone wearing that hat look so squeezable. I think everyone should wear one of those. So no one can ever say you're not cute ever again, cos it's impossible not to look squeezable with that hat.

Of poofy eyes that cannot open fully

2006-05-09T00:11:00.000+08:00

Crazy mad rush production is finally over... now on to post-prod.

From Wednesday to Saturday, 4 days of 15-hour shoots and pre-sunrise/early morning call times equate to less than 12 hours of sleep over the shoot days. Simply insane, if you ask me. I am seriously pooped. Even after 12 hours of sleep before logging started on Sunday, I was/am still slightly concussed. Blah.

Special thanks to Fee-ster a.k.a la chienne, for hauling herself down to Marina South at 830am on rainy/stormy polling day to be an extra on my shoot. Merci beaucoup, mon amie... vraiment.

Still busy busy busy as a bee but at least I'm holed up in office logging and doing other post stuff that doesn't require 15 hour days outdoors. It's scary, though, how time flies, not so much because I realize how overdue my monthly logbook submission is, but because I've got a backlog of weeks of Alias, CSI and Grey's Anatomy episodes to clear. And a bunch of movies my friend passed to me. I need to take like 3 days leave to clear that backlog.

Will Tippin! Anna Espinosa! WARGHH!

In the latest episode, to retrieve a detonator that Anna tosses out of a train, Syd and Will fling themselves out of the train, which is hurtling across a bridge over some dark unknown area. Seriously. This is the kind of jump you attempt when you have at least 2 parachutes strapped to your back (1 real, 1 backup), AND if you can see where you are going to land. Not in pitch black darkness, nor from a moving vehicle. AND DEFINITELY NOT FROM THE MIDDLE OF A BRIDGE BETWEEN MOUNTAINS!! (What, they have feather beds/air cushions to cushion their fall?? How unfair!!)

Miraculously, they land in the River of Convenience (as TWoP aptly calls it...ROFLMAO! I heart TWoP!). After free-falling for a gazillion miles from the bridge, Syd dives after the detonator (which is the size of a deck of cards) in pitch black water at night, and emerges from the water with the detonator in hand, victorious.

Can we sing a Hail Sydney victory song or something?

Gee, sometimes Alias is so ridiculous I don't know whether they're trying to be funny or their researcher/writer just got lazy. Although I do have to give them a bit of credit for some rarely found funny bits in this season's eps. Sigh. Last season.

Anyway, speaking of time flying, it's only a month's time to doomsday a.k.a the day I fall to my death in a dress that's taller than me. No kidding. Bleh.

2006-04-29T13:06:00.000+08:00

Panic mode!!!

Need one malay middle aged lady wearing a tudung/hijab to do a bit of acting in a corporate video. Dialogue includes a short one-liner, other acting required just standing around, moving around.

Same job requirement, but this time, I'm looking for a middle aged (slightly grey haired, if possible) man to do the same thing.

Coming Saturday 6/5 full day job. Please enquire here or forward me any interested applicant's info etc. This is a paid job, btw.

THANKEWVERYMUCHIWILLBUYYOUTEAIFYOUCANFINDMESOMEONE.

2006-04-25T13:31:00.000+08:00

A Prayer for the Stressed

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill today because they got on my nerves.

And also, help me to be careful of the toes I step on today as they may be connected to the feet I may have to kiss tomorrow.

Help me always to give 100% at work; 12% on Monday, 23% Tuesday, 40% on Wednesday, 20% on Thursday and 5% on Friday.

And help me to remember when I am having a bad day and it seems that people are trying to wind me up, it takes 42 muscles to frown, 28 to smile and only 4 to extend my arm and smack someone in the mouth.

2006-04-22T20:51:00.000+08:00

The final season of Alias is off its hiatus! 2 episodes back to back, and all I can say is OMG!! OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!! Sydney is preggers no more! Go spy barbie!

2006-04-21T21:28:00.000+08:00

It's been a mad week, drama from the very beginning, to a hectic Friday. A week of colleagues quitting, laptops malfunctioning, late nights in office (what's new), crazy rush to send out tapes and concept pitches, draining client meetings, handling dreary people.

Woke up this morning (and actually, went to bed last night) with a splitting headache. And by splitting, I mean wild. Insanely throbbing. Even after 2 panadols. Nauseous. My eyes were tearing all the way to work, because I could feel the searing pain behind them.

Wanted to take MC (my first in 4 months), but couldn't because I had urgent work to do that would make my life very miserable on Monday if I didn't finish it before this weekend. So I dragged my way to the office, took another panadol, and ended up concussing with another bleary-eyed, exhausted colleague in the edit suite couch for nearly one hour, only to be woken up by the editor.

Thankfully, the 3rd panadol did the trick and I managed to go through the day doing my stuff properly. Thank god for panadol. I love panadol. Panadol is good.

Got home before 9pm today, first time so far this week. So I went to 'zeng' my MSN. Cos my Mac-hugging colleagues (office is filled with them) told me to use Trillion or some other messaging client because it offers tabbed messaging, but I waved my Microsoft flag and politely declined.

Being the google-aholic I am, I went to search for hacks and cracks and all those plugins to pimp up MSN. And lo and behold, the new and improved, pimped up MSN...

Yay, it looks Mac-ified, and it's got tabs (at the top)! No more 5 windows to chat with 5 people. It's like firefox. So fun.

And I found a feature in messenger plus (I'm an idiot for not using it earlier):

Haha. Boss protection. Very nifty thing especially since I work with super-spies all around me. Kudos to the brilliant person who came up with it. I was so amused with the feature as well as the name of it that I kept doing the short-cut and making my messenger windows all disappear, and the MSN icon in the system tray become an innocuous network drive icon. Even when there wasn't any boss/spy around. Heh.

Need to drag myself down to Bugis to see the converse sale! Please don't be over yet, please don't be over yet... Knowing my fantastic luck, it's probably going to be over though. Gee.

By the way, I am pleased to present to you...

Mootoo the Scootoo!!

I went to work on Mootoo for a few days this week, and I discovered how fun it is to terrorize Shentonites :)

2006-04-14T09:05:00.000+08:00

Dear Diary,

It's Good Friday, and I'm in the office.

Cheerios,
Wen Ling

2006-04-05T22:24:00.000+08:00

I nearly fell off my chair laughing when I saw the subject of this email in my school account:

Might I add that this was sent by a PhD holder. The moment I saw the email, I burst out laughing and my colleague thought I'd gone berserk over the piles and piles of photos I had been scanning all morning.

Lately I've been laughing at my colleague (jokingly of course) and saying she's the most un-techie Mac user I've ever seen. Mac users I've met so far are always the gadgety types, who know all the shortcuts, who have all the cracked software to do all kinds of wonderful things on. Which reminds me, I have to declare that my loyalty belongs to PC. It's just a matter of preference and I have to admit that I was tempted to the dark side (a.k.a Mac) because of bimbotic factors mostly.

Oh yes, I met this person whom I initially felt was quite nice, and that I would be able to get along with quite well, seeing that we had similar attitudes to several issues.

So far, things are proving otherwise, which is quite disappointing. To state the facts (or rather, the very clear vibes and behavioral traits I am seeing), this person is proud, hypocritical, condescending, attention-seeking, self-righteous ("the weight of the world is on my shoulders; I am so capable in handling so many things at a time" - generally, the self-deluding long-suffering types), overly-whiny, fickle, narrow-minded, short-sighted, act-modest, and VERY, VERY PR. These are not figments of my imagination; I can cite at least one event where each trait became apparent to me.

Thinking about these events just makes me mad, but of course, it would be unfair to say that this person didn't have any redeeming grace. There are good things, too. It's just that bit by bit, I am getting to know this person more clearly, and his/her character traits are slowly unravelling themselves. And I'm not liking what I see.

I know this is harsh, and that no one is perfect, but I'm describing this person in the hopes that I can overlook these points and come to fully accept this person for what he/she is, and not be as PR and hypocritical as him/her.

P.S. Currently coming up with concept for a TV show, wonder if my SP will rip my concept to shreds? Hmmm.

2006-04-01T20:02:00.000+08:00

Here's one of those photos that make you go awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I'm sure JG will make a great mom. You just know it. I'm not so sure about Violet's daddy though, but let's just tolerate him for the sake of spy barbie.

2006-03-31T23:50:00.000+08:00

Realization of the week: my new laptop does not have a PS/2 port. Means I can't use my keyboard with it, because I have FIVE USB-to-PS/2 adapters/converters, but NOT A SINGLE PS/2-TO-USB ADAPTER OR CONVERTER.

Technology's a bitch, I tell ya.

When the cats go to Cannes, the mice all come out to play. Along the way they plan to ambush the bimbo and attack her with a gunny sack and sticks.

Cryptic, I know, but if you understood that, chances are you work in my office. So long.

Tired, tired, tired. On leave Monday. Goodnight world.

The Asus U5

2006-03-26T17:04:00.000+08:00

2006-03-18T12:20:00.000+08:00

Happy St Paddy's to y'all!

A little late I know, but I was busy all day and out all night, so now's the earliest. Anyway, it's still not too late for people living in Pacific Time.. hoho.

By the way, if you've seen Google's home page, you would have seen the holiday logo they've designed for SPD (thanks beth for the heads up).

Nice. In fact, I just realized I posted this logo in one of my older blogs (can't remember which now). And since I was being bored at work and all, I went to google for the 2005 SPD holiday logo.

And lo and behond, lookie what I found!

If you sift through the years, you'll see the St Paddy's one for every year =D

P.S. this guy's job is practically a dream.

2006-03-16T20:49:00.000+08:00

I could almost smack Canon camera designers with my fantastically black lens adapter kit when I heard that the Powershot S3 IS, successor to my current camera (the S2 IS) is a brilliant BLACK.

FYI, the S2 has a (very unprofessional-looking, IMHO) matte silver finish, which, in case Canon didn't notice, doesn't quite GO WITH THE BLACK OF THE LENS ADAPTER, OR THE VERY BLACK OPTIONAL LENSES FOR THE CAMERA.

&*@^$#%@%^%&*#!!!

Oh why why why are there such ridiculously dumb people in this earth put in such important positions, like DESIGNERS or PRODUCT TESTERS? Good grief!

In other news, it's the day before St Paddy's! And also, you know you're working too much when muscle memory starts occurring during the 10 minute walk between the train station and the office. One minute you're stepping out of the elevator at the office, and the next minute, your legs have carried you onto a train bound for home. Bad, bad, very very bad.

2006-03-12T23:08:00.000+08:00

I initially wanted to post about losing my religion, amongst other things, but then I decided that it's too depressing a topic to post here, lest I get hounded by worry warts from all around.

So here's the real deal - I haven't taken leave from work yet. Despite my plans to get away from work. Seems like some problems are popping up every other day, and I feel irresponsible not being around to help handle these issues when they occur. So much for being a slacker. I say I'm a slacker with a conscience. Sometimes I wish I were at either extreme - complete slacker or total workaholic - and not undecided like so.

There's so much I would love to gripe about the company, but I'm slowly realising that there's no point, because everywhere I go, there'll always be such people and situations, so I think 'live with it' ought to be a pretty useful mantra to go about my day.

The weather is crazy these days. Sweltering hot, it is. Fortunately I'm locked in an office with no windows (except in the conference room) more than 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. So, the only chance I get to see the sun are during lunch, or if I get get off work early. Otherwise, it's always the rising or setting sun.

Another 3.5 months or so left, and I'm looking forward to it ending. I am so eating my words about wanting to work. Maybe going back to school isn't such a bad idea. Apart from that ludicrous 2nd year newswriting class I still have to take since I missed it in Year 2. But that'll only last one semester. And then I'll be done with it. Unlike work, which I can foresee I will be toiling at for at least the next few decades. Unless someone gives me a million bucks.

Been looking around for job opportunities overseas, but (in the words of the spoof geisha) IT HARD!!! (LOL.)But seriously, somebody get me a contact already! Why is adult life so darn difficult? I don't care if it's front or back door. When you get as jaded as I am (and possibly even more so over the next few years), all lofty ambitions go out the window. There is no such thing as clear-cut morality; black and white do not exist, only grey. I don't know how my thought process and mentality will change over the next few years, but right now, all I want is to get through life with as little bruises as possible. I know this sounds wussy, but I am tired. Emotionally, psychologically and physically.

To think I used to whine about how kids had it tough. To a certain extent I was right, studies are now a major pain in the ass, and can be tough as hell. But I guess I never did consider the five milliion other problems that adults had, in place of studying.

Someone asked me how come my posts these days are all so pensive and almost depressing. Perhaps it just reflects my state of mind at that point in time. I don't see myself not posting the usual insinuating tidbit things if I feel like it, or if I have the inspiration, but now is just not the time.

2006-03-10T23:26:00.000+08:00

OMG! My first weekend in a month to myself, and not spent going to the office! Wheee!

2006-03-03T23:42:00.000+08:00

I'm famous!

hahahahaha.

(see here)

t i r e d.

2006-02-27T23:00:00.000+08:00

RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use

You have gotta be kidding me. Now ripping CDs that I purchased from rip-off places like Borders or HMV to my mp3 player is "not fair use"?

(Links here and here.)

2006-02-24T23:21:00.000+08:00

I am swamped with work. By mid-March, I would have worked at least 28 days consecutively, no weekends or any PH or off-days at all. 3 weekends burnt. I have no life. Or rather, I have less of a life than what little bit I once possessed.

I'm only taking 15 mins to post some things that made me laugh real hard in these couple of weeks of non-stop working, before I go concuss in bed (and go back to work tomorrow - a Saturday). Because these are the little things that make me laugh huge. And I want to remember them when I have to survive crappy days in future.

It's really a case of typing too fast, either in email or text messages. Incident #1 happened when I was communicating with a director through email about an upcoming shoot. The email convo moved back and forth a bit, but generally it went something like this:

(I was looking for old-looking furniture to do a simple studio set for a shoot)

Me: Have attached some pics of 'typical' indian homes for your reference..

Director: Looks like any house in the late 70's, with old solid wooden furniture. Can we find something like this?

Me: Not sure if can find the furniture, have to ask around. Will also need like a pickup or something to transport it to the studio.

Director: I thought [insert company name] has a van? How do we go location shoot?

Me: yep we have a can, but not sure if all that kind furniture can fit?

-----------------

Now, I really wasn't trying to be funny. What I meant was that we have a VAN. The C and V keys on the keyboard are just next to each other. You really can't blame me. Though it really does sound funny, and I sort of provided my colleagues with some ROFL amusement for half a day or so. They couldn't get over the fact that I tried to tell the director that we couldn't fit furniture into a can. Or something like that. Whatever it is, it's just so out of point that I laugh at my own stupidity.

Incident #2 happened today. I was out on a shoot, and one of the talents was late, thus leading to a bit of shuffling of shot order, since there was a shot that called for both talents to be present. So anyway, a representative from the client's company was there too, and he kept questioning (read: bugging) me and the director about why we weren't doing that scene, how we were going to do it, and blah blah blah.

I got so annoyed I messaged a colleague who was also out on another shoot. This was what I THOUGHT I text-ed her: (pardon the expletives, I was really annoyed)

"f**k man, talent late. [insert client company name] idiot is being anal about stuff. bleh."

The idiot in question was the client rep that my colleague and I had met previously, so she had no problem understanding who I was referring to. However, at the end of the day, when we were having dinner, she asked me what the heck my cryptic message meant.

"Cryptic?" I asked, totally confused. She showed me the message she received, and it read:

"f**k man, talent late. [insert client company name] idiot is being coal boot stuff. bleh."

I nearly fainted on the spot, both from laughter (at myself) and embarassment. Guess either I type wayyyyy too fast, I am totally unobservant, or Samsung's keypad is bad. Wonder which.

Anyway, we had such an effin good laugh all the way back to office after dinner, only to have it abruptly cut short when we saw that the office had been locked up, and our bags were still inside. The people who locked up somehow failed to see our bags in plain sight, and thought that everyone had left, and locked the main door.

In the end, sat at the seats outside our building to wait for the last people who left to come back to rescue us. Meaning I only logged 10 minutes of my 6 tapes, leaving another 5 hours, 50 minutes to go TOMORROW. A SATURDAY.

I really need to take leave and hibernate for a couple of days. Even my supervisor thought so. But I didn't know how to explain to her that if I take leave now, the 2 projects that I'm working on are going to take a standstill of sorts. Because I'm doing the job of 5 people, for the pay of 1/4 persons.

AP = AP + PA + Props + Casting + ...

2006-02-15T22:22:00.000+08:00

If you don't watch Grey's Anatomy, you don't know watcha missin' out on, y'all. This week's episode was explosive stuff, no kidding. Little wonder why this mid-season-2 show's one of the top dramas in the US right now. And everybody's favorite little Ch 5 is still on season 1. Hmmm.

Work's still as exhausting, and often tedious too. If there's one thing I've learnt from doing casting tapes and burning showreels, it's to ALWAYS MAKE A COPY OF EVERYTHING YOU BURN OR SEND OUT. Oh I could just shoot myself when I realize I need a copy of something I didn't make a copy of. @#$#&^$!!

And after nearly 2 months of 'getting into it', I've decided I don't wanna be an AP. Not for long at least. I dunno, but where I work, AP duties = duties of AP + PA + Casting Dept + Props Master + Transcriber + Logger + Budget balancer + God knows what else. Oh maybe these are just intern duties. Probably. "Oh, need powerpoint slides to be done? Ask the intern." Or, "Need to burn showreels? Ask the intern."

Which reminds me, the PCs there are all CMI. Seriously. I thought my laptop was screwed up. I eat my words, and give lappy a good pat on the head. (Even if the DVD drive died on me.)

My new old camera arrived! Not sure if it works fully, been testing it out all around, but need to run through whole roll of film before I can get it developed and see how shocked/surprised I am by the shots that I took.

By the way, film's quite a pain to find these days. And people give me weird looks when I ask if their store carries film.

"Hi, do you sell film here?"

"Film??"

"Yes. Film."

"Huh?"

"Film. Fiiiilmmm. CAMERA film."

"Ohhh, no we don't have that" or "Ohhhhh, FEE-LIM ah? No, don't have." (depending on whether the shop's a 7-11 or a mama shop)

Fee-lim, eh? Hahahaha...

2006-02-12T23:52:00.000+08:00

I am pulling my hair out because of work.

Seriously.

It seems either they underwork you or they overwork you. There is no such thing as "just enough work". It's the weekend, but I've been fretting over MIA talents, conflicting schedules, researching for set recreation, studio booking, budget balancing, finding money for extra stuff director's call for (as if we're shooting some mega blockbuster or the likes.) I'm no money manager, so this last one is a huge toughie.

Corporate clients. Sometimes you really just want to roar at them. But... ce n'est pas possible!!

And to make things worse, my DVD-ROM drive suddenly conked out. Like really suddenly. One moment I was ripping Disc 3 of Boomtown onto my hard disk and then without warning the ripping software I was using announces that there's an error, and only one episode got ripped out. I shut down the progs, pop the disc back into the drive, and now the comp doesn't even DETECT the DVD. or any other DVD for that matter. Only CDs and regular CD-ROMS.

Maybe my comp is reaching the end of its 3-year lifespan. Could that be a sign? Hmmm... Nevertheless, now I need to lug lappy down to the service center (AGAIN!!) to get it checked out at lappy hospital. Which, at the moment, seems like mission impossible, considering how I'm working when they are open and I'm free only when they are closed too. This has got to be the most annoying thing about work. ROARRRR!!!

2006-02-06T23:24:00.000+08:00

Hmmm, if I didn't know better, I'd say the Motorola Razr's the sponsored phone of the season for Alias. Hohoho.

And apparently ABC has left out Alias from its latest schedule announcement. Sure hope it ain't a permanent hiatus thing. As much as JG's stunts when preggers don't look very super-spy, I'd rather have a super-mom-spy than a no-show-spy.

Work ain't rosy, neither are the new people I'm gonna be working with, but we'll see. Perhaps this is what it's gonna be like in the future. Gah.

Bought a 120GB external hard drive the other day at SLS, and while there, I might have clamped someone to death in the elevator doors. Don't blame me, blame the door open/close buttons that weren't labelled. Or at least the labels had been scratched off. So I had a 50/50 chance of kiapping someone in those doors.

Speaking of elevator doors, the ones at the office building where I work are lethal. If only the elevator moved as quickly as the doors closed. Hmmm.

The other day, I spotted this on the wall just outside my door:

ON THE WALL! Kinda freaky and weird, but still, fwah, they were transporting this thing up, against gravity! The poor ants at the bottom.

And not forgetting my latest excuse to spend moolah,

The Konica C35 Rangefinder

There goes my money (if I win the ebay auction). Sometimes I wonder if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

Oh and here's one of the first in the Spot the Snapple series. More to come! STS is my latest hobby and hopefully, long-term project that I'm experimenting with. It involves snapping Snapple bottles (apple flavor) in various intriguing/bizarre/funny/weird/etc locations, and I'm always happy to take suggestions :)

P.S. Looloo really isn't so black/brown/burnt in reality. I just played with the curves in photoshop. Same for the ants picture. I don't have psychedelic blue walls.

2006-01-30T23:07:00.000+08:00

CNY means absolutely nothing to me. Okay, maybe it does, but it's only as meaningful as New Year's Day is to me. Which is really just an excuse for resting or partying, depending on whether you're the introverted or extroverted type.

I'm trying my best to savor these 2 days of non-work, especially since it's gonna be another few months before the next PH arrives. I'm honestly intrigued by my own work stamina. I don't do anything physically strenuous, only the occasional brain-draining scheduling work or transcribing, but yet at the end of the day I'm just completely pooped.

Maybe it's the office politics fence I'm desperately trying to build and maintain around my desk. Friend or foe, I don't know. What I do know, however, is that I simply want to get this internship over and done with. It's not that I dislike working, it's just the motivation that's keeping me working now.

Je suis fatiguée. I don't get to sleep much during the week, so I just sleep and sleep and sleep during the weekends. I'm amazed at my own sloth.

But back to CNY. It's also (ironically) during CNY that I realize how normal and dysfunctional different sides of my family can be. Almost like doing a compare and contrast. Paternal, maternal, worlds apart. And the scary thing is I can't be sure I won't end up like this twenty years down the road.

The Loner Syndrome, c'est moi? I don't think it's a bad thing, although the voice of society seems to dictate otherwise. And so do the parents. Like it's a scary thing that I would rather go home and slack rather than go out with people I don't really know very well anyway. I can work alone, eat alone, watch movies alone, go shopping alone. I like doing things alone, there's no pressure to make sure other people are having as much fun as I am, neither do I have to worry about what others think of me. It's nice, almost liberating.

Of course, some company would be nice sometimes, but there are times that I really want to be left alone. Privacy. Means a lot to me. Sounds almost like teenage angst, innit? But it's true, sometimes I would really rather people not come and bug me with incessant chatter or pleasantries etc.

Why should I have to follow in the footsteps of others? So what if it's the accepted tradition? What if I don't want to do that? No one here ever considers that. Why should my behavior be measured against a standard set by someone else?

There is no sense of relativity without comparision, but comparision is subjective, and I refuse to be labelled inferior just because I'm different. I'm sick and tired of such absurd traditional social labels. I don't need to live up to other people's standards.

Just mine.

2006-01-25T23:40:00.000+08:00

I'm the resident Lipton tea drinker at work, and just 2 weeks into the job, I emptied the carton of yellow-label teabags. Not that it was full to start with. But it was at least half full. Or half empty. No, wait. Bah, it's the same whichever way you look at it.

And then just as I was feeling quite depressed at the quickly depleting supply of yellow-label, and just as I was contemplating bringinng in a box of my own from home (that no one really drinks anyway), KM pointed out there's a new carton in the pantry cabinet!

And she's right!

A sight for sore eyes.
And office-aircon-desensitized nasal passages.

Imagine my sheer joy at ripping the shrink wrap off this delightful yellow box, unleashing the magnificient beauty of this gem! 100 brand new, untouched, smooth and tightly-packed yellow-label teabags!

Oooh so nice, neat and orderly!!!
Oooh so pretty in yellow!!!
Oooh so fragrant!!!
Oooh!!!

Tired from all that excitement. These days I'm just so sleepy. I don't sleep before midnight, and I have to wake up at 7 to hitch a ride down to work, even though I'm fine as long as I get in before 10. Weekends I sleep as much as possible to make up for it, but it's just not working. I drink at least 2-3 cups of tea/coffee every day. And I'm still yawning away, feeling fatigued. Je suis fatiguée!!!

By the way, revelation of the month: People working in the CBD carry umbrellas on rainy days to shield themselves not only in the rain but also under sheltered walkways. These lethal weapons are also useful for poking and/or dripping water on other people.

2006-01-21T17:09:00.001+08:00

Just another lazy saturday afternoon, but here's something exciting:

Presenting my newly-adopted pet: Kaya Roti Kopi Guni, the exotically fantastic green llama!

I figured why let the celebs get all the fun in naming their kids when I can do the same to my pet. Kal-El, Tallulah, Jaycesun, Mikull, Kefvern, August, Moon Unit, the list goes on. If they can get away with a name like Lark Song, maybe someone will name his or her kid Llama Bleat. Or Cow Concerto.

Sea-monkey Sonata, anyone?

Not only does KRKG (short form for my darling llama's very "local-flavor" name) look uniquely green, his name sounds equally unique.

Just a quick heads-up, caught sight of this at CNA's website:

Google defies US government demand for online search data

Pretty awesome if you ask me. Only deepens my adulation of all things Google.

2006-01-17T00:35:00.000+08:00

The world is so confusing I don’t even want to try to comprehend it. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt in this brief hiatus, it’s that.

For one, I truly expected not to post another update till at least mid-semester. And honestly, looking at how things are now, I’m surprised I can find the time and energy to actually post.

Yet for some unfathomable reason, I find it stifling not to put my thoughts and feelings out on paper (albeit digital). It’s almost as if the finiteness of the physical body I possess is reaching its limit, and it’s time to toss out some of it into the archive (my apologies, I’ve been g-mailing a tad too much these days).

And while some might decide to ‘archive’ them by talking to others, venting their frustrations on an effigy or binge eating, I choose to write. Which, in itself, is another mind-boggling aspect of life, for I clearly remember how, around five years ago, I had said (with brutal honesty, no less) to my teacher, “I hate writing,” or something along those lines.

I know I use big words. Perhaps more than necessary. Some people may think I’m a huge snob showing off my vocabulary, and some believe in using simple words. I really don’t give a merde about it. For me, using a word with more than three syllables in it is way beyond word-power flaunting and I don’t feel a need to explain my idiosyncrasies.

In the past year, I’ve met, known, befriended, and been bewildered by people. If the world is confusing, then I say people are confounding. But as the years pass and I (*gasp*) grow up, I’ve learnt to just accept it. Because there is no point in expending my time and effort in trying to change people that can’t or won’t listen, and behavior that I know will not improve.

Of course the über-optimists aren’t going to be very happy about that, but that’s just how I feel. It’s like trying to save a surgical patient who’s had his internal organs perforated beyond recognition. Futile.

I realize I’ve become more cynical and apathetic than ever, and you probably would have picked up on that if I’d spoken to you on issues deeper and darker than all things happy and nice. To a certain extent, I am a little worried, whether I will continue to be more and more of a cynic till one day I’ll contemplate whether life’s still worth living.

On the other hand, I am still very much like the younger me, too indifferent to care about what’s going to happen next month, next week, and even tomorrow. So for now, it’s really in some sort of temporary equilibrium.

This year, some big changes are going to happen. Starting my internship, friends flying off to other countries, friends graduating from college and starting work, preparing for FYP, these only make me wonder what I’ll be thinking and feeling a year from now.

I used to lament on how grotesque going for classes was, and how much I’d love to work, because at least I’ll be getting paid for doing equally tiring tasks. Two weeks into my internship, I wouldn’t say I am eating my words, but neither would I lament in the same way as I used to.

Within two weeks, I’ve already experienced all sorts of unpleasant things (although not all of it happened to me): politicking, irresponsibility, deep-end-dumping, pushing the blame, favoritism, pettiness. While I admit these do exist in school, they seem so much more real in the workplace. It’s as though you can feel your professional life ebbing away thanks to a small number of people around you. Whereas in school, you know that you only need endure them for the remainder of your degree program.

When I whined about being dumped in the deep end of the pool by taking Video I without having taken BAV, it was like the PG version. Now, it’s like the M18 version.

Not the sex and violence, you cow. (I can already foresee some ignoramus thinking that I’m being beaten up or something worse in the office.)

The idea of being 22 is daunting. Whereas 21 was a (for want of a better word) “cool” age to be, a transition that signified the coming-of-age and adulthood, R21 movies, alcohol in the States, voting (ha!), and whatever other nonsense that requires being 21 years old, 22 is like a year into adulthood.

And after a year of being an adult, what have I achieved? It’s probably still too early to tell, and besides, while some people love garnering accolades under their belt to secure their career and lives for the next 20 years, I’m not one of them. Which is probably a bad thing, considering how I have no plans for the future, no extraordinary talent and no Gringotts vault full of shimmery galleons.

(For the uninitiated, galleons are the largest unit of currency in J. K. Rowling’s world of Harry Potter.)

How things will turn out in future, I don’t know, and I’ll be a fool if I didn’t worry, despite my insistent self-reminders at how worrying doesn’t solve the problem. After all, I am but a product of our society, though possibly with some slight aberration within, thus explaining my occasional deviant opinion.

It’s a little late, but I have a resolution for the year: to live up to my expectations, and not others’. I know it will be difficult, what with peer pressure and societal norms to conform to. But it is, after all, my life, and I only have one to live in this world. No one’s benchmark ought to matter more to me than my own.

2005-11-22T00:27:00.000+08:00

(Click to see larger version)

The HP kids all grown up, plus more characters. Pity, I liked them better as kids. But guess you can't have it both ways. HP would be stuck in the 12 year-old wizard world and people would get bored watching them movie after movie. There are only so many plot devices you can wrench out of a one-year school term.

To my astonishment (and horror), not only does the guy playing Cedric need an eyebrow trim, he also needs a new haircut. And maybe less butterbeers. Looks a little peaky in the picture.

Cho's hairdo and clothing... not too sure what to make of it. But this hardly being my area of expertise, I'll leave it to the pros. Hoho.

Been speed-reading HP e-books so much my eyes are going a little wonky. I need to lay off them ebooks.

This is also possibly gonna be my final post in a long time (I hope). Partly because I doubt I'd have time to continually post, and partly because of the reach of this site. If I feel like there's something I really need to say then I might just post again, but for now, after 4 years of continual updates on different webhosts, a hiatus would be nice.

Thanks, everybody, it was great while it lasted.

2005-11-17T18:28:00.000+08:00

As promised, here's Syd's Chinese-speaking adventure:

And then she proceeds to rub her bump (which looks kinda awkward, but that's just me), but the guard looks at her, unconvinced.

Pretty awesome phonetic memory, if you ask me. In fact, apart from a slip at the end of the third line ('ni zhi dao ma' came out sounding nothing like what it ought to have been), her pronunciation was fantastic, and she actually spoke more Chinese than the guard in that scene. And she came up with that impromptu! Well, at least Syd did. We all know JG doesn't write the scripts. Hoho. But nevertheless, powerful stuff, I tell ya. No wonder Rachel (the new Syd-in-training) is so impressed. And Marshall is so goofy as usual.

Went to watch the sneaks of Harry Potter. Although I might have spaced out during one scene because I totally have no recollection of that scene at all, the rest was pretty good. Not one moment in the 2.5 hours that I was bored, which is rare considering how short my attention span can be.

There was this scene at the Yule ball, where Hermione gracefully comes down this big-ass staircase with the sole purpose of adding grandeur to the scene. So graceful! So mature! So elegant! So sophisticated! So swooning! ...

And then she giggles.

ANTI-CLIMAX, anyone? By the way, it's not just any common giggle. This is the famous nervous, butterflies-in-my-stomach-spleen-gallbladder-pancreas, I'm-about-to-dance-with-the-Bulgarian-Quidditch-star-Viktor-Krum giggle. An Oh-how-my-heart-flutters kind of giggle. And it occurs just as Viktor Krum takes her hand. Hilarious! I burst out laughing when she did that nervous giggle/chuckle thing at the end. ROFL! So much for sophistication and elegance.

The good news is that Hermione is getting prettier by the minute, and so is Ginny. The bad news, however, is that the guys are becoming kinda scary-looking. Cedric needs to get his eyebrows trimmed. Seriously. And Harry needs a tan. The prefect's bathroom scene was just... mehh. That guy is more pasty white than a slab of Philadelphia cream cheese, and that is a no-no. Ron is... well, he needs a haircut. But seeing how goofy-funny he is, I'll ignore the bad hairdo for now.

Now all I need to do is finish all the HP e-books I have (gonna take a while though, I don't read too well on screens) and get all psyched up for the next HP. In 2 years time?! Haha. Oh well... c'est la vie.

2005-11-12T19:08:00.000+08:00

OMIGOSH! Syd spoke a whole bunch of Chinse on Alias in the latest episode! No merde! Either her memory is fantastic or they used about twenty reels of film for that scene. Haha. Will post some caps next time...

2005-11-11T17:25:00.000+08:00

The slacker is back!

The week has been craaaazy but I survived. Yup, still good.

My very unaesthetic exam timetable pre-exams:

The same timetable post-exams:

Yes I enjoy crossing out stuff, it's extremely carthatic and therapeutic for me in times of duress.

Exams week was a 5-hit combo (phrase courtesy of weiwei), and admittedly it was tough, considering how I'm really not the typical brilliant CS student or the constant-working type. So a week before the papers I told myself I'd use the week to mug, but ended up having lots of fun instead, thanks to Deepavali and Hari Raya. Which resulted in my late nights of last-minute frantic page-flipping and line-repeating, running on 4 hours of sleep a night for 5 days.

No wonder Sam remarked that I looked so 'sair' today. I didn't even realize it myself but maybe I've been overworking (HA!) myself.

But there were external factors too. The guy living in the house behind mine is a hardcore erhu player. My piano teacher would have loved him as a student. He at least once ever day, and in the garden, so anyone within a 1km radius of CHEZ LUI (i stand corrected, prof. Val) can hear him. Naturally I bore the brunt of it, being only about 30m max from his garden.

Interestingly enough, I did recognize some of his tunes. I wonder if that's a result of my communist secondary school education or my hardcore TV watching when I was younger. (Yes I was a Channel 8 junkie last time. I have since repented.)

Of course, studying involves a lot of study snacks. And one of them caused me to chuckle when I saw the wrapper:

MIAOW MIAOW! Hahahaha!!! Omigosh! IAN ONG I'm still blaming you for that incident okay?! I'm not gonna reveal all the juicy details in public, but all I can say is, it involved a certain guy whom I'm gonna avoid sitting directly opposite of in future, a big mug of milo, a small bag of MiaowMiaow snacks, a pristine white RV uniform and a disclipine mistress.

BAV paper is mad! Haha. I was still reading the first question and happily watching a clip of the then-extremely-adorable Harry Potter in HPATSS, when I realized that everyone behind me was typing FURIOUSLY! Like typing competition speed!

WOAHHHH!!

Man, whoever said computer-adminstered tests were fun should go smack himself on the head with a bag of MiaowMiaow, because nothing could be further from the truth. FYI, writing is silent. Typing is not. And when a lot of people type really fast, and you haven't started typing, only one thing happens - P A N I C.

All in all, this semester's exams weren't horrendously difficult or anything. Just a lot more memorizing that I had to do than normal. Even for a GE. Sheesh. But I wasn't really like stressed out or anything. In fact a week ago I was almost getting stressed because I wasn't getting stressed. Hmm, a very confusing and elliptical concept, but I'm sure you get it.

I was telling estherisk that going on exchange has made me feel like I'm invincible. Because over there all I needed was to pass, and besides, the exams were either MCQ or open book, or there weren't even exams, so it was really fantastically relaxed. There was no way I was gonna fail any paper. After coming back, it's all different, but I was still going on in school as though I were still in the US. The exchange bug, I believe that's what she called this phenomenon. Sheesh.

Right now I'm just gonna make up for a lot of lost sleep and after I'm done hibernating, I'm gonna try to start on my post-exams to-do list. Currently there are 14 items on it. Yes I know that's a lot, but it's really an accumulation of things that I've procrastinated on since months ago, as well as new things that popped up during the exam period that I pushed back so as to *ahem* focus on my exams.

After Video 1 paper today a.k.a last paper, I felt strangely indifferent. Probably because I didn't even study for it. All I did was skim through his notes this morning. Which is a good thing because if I had studied, it would have been a waste of my time.

And yes, I've finally gotten hold of my group's final studio program, so ahem, yanyan & weiwei, please submit your offers, the higher bid of you two will get to keep the disc. Haha. I'm kidding..

But yes the semester is over, it wasn't too bad, but neither was it awesome. I'm just glad I'm done with another semester of college. 5 down, 3 more to go!!

2005-11-02T23:42:00.000+08:00

First things first, I'm not posting not because I'm busy mugging for the exams. Au contraire, mes amis. I've been busy having too much fun. Going to JB, having breakfast meets, living the high life. In fact, a little too high. I'm beginning to panic a little now, after depleting my printer's ink from printing the entire semester's notes. Heh. And with people around me scaring the hell outta me (people counting down to the start of exams, listing out on their MSN nicks things to do, things done or things not done etc etc), perhaps it's time I really hit the books hard and fast.

So no posts till next Friday, after my 4th consecutive day and also my last day of les examens horrible (private joke - "ORRHIBLE!!"). Ho hum.

P.S. We've been religiously having pears for dessert for TWO weeks now, I'm beginning to suspect the mother has a secret pear orchard in her room or something. Or maybe I've been watching too much CSI (the plot of the last episode revolves around home-grown weed. Go figure.)

2005-10-27T18:53:00.000+08:00

BAV Avid session is finally over. Time to go on to other things.

Argh, so many things I want to do, so little time!!!

17th November - Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire

...but... but... who's the guy with the big red arrow pointing at him? Could that be harry? I could have sworn I just presented my media management project to someone who looks just like him!!! UNBELIEVABLE!! (lol...)

I'm not exactly a HP fan, but I like the movies. If you have the books, LEND THEM TO ME, D'YA HEAR ME??!

More HP GOF pics here.

19th November - The Art of Star Wars

Wahhh!!! Exhibition/documentary screening at the Science Center. C'mon everybody! Hands up, who's going?! Though I have to admit it's getting a bit difficult to find a star wars fan these days.

29th December - Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit

From the makers of Chicken Run (though W&G was wayyy before Chicken Run came out), this is another comedy based on the adventures of clay-sculpted main characters Wallace & Grommit (duh). If you haven't seen the previous W&G shows (the titles elude me at the moment), go see them! I first saw them during English class in secondary school. Good stuff, I tell ya.

Alrightey, back to last bits of work before revision week. Hopefully I'll be doing what I should be doing. (HA!)

F.O.F and more

2005-10-26T19:12:00.000+08:00

French oral fiasco. Well, not exactly a fiasco, nor a disaster, but close enough.

First, the examiner was the exact same teacher that I froze up in my very first level 2 french class. The one who possibly stamped me with a 'Ultimate Retard' stamp (see here).

So anyway all was going fine until she asked about the father's occupation.

Freeze up.

How do you say Manager? Suddenly I wish the father had a more generic occupation like ingénieur, architecte, hell, even policier would be fine. But nooooo, he had to have a long and complicated job title. Actually I don't even remember it. Something along the lines of marketing and managing director or something.

Oooh, director. I know how to say that. But clearly the word on its own means someone who makes aesthetic decisions on the set of a production. So obviously the examiner had to clarify, 'directeur de quoi?' Then she went on to spout a string of examples, none of which I understood. I vaguely heard something about bank, but decided not to risk it, for fear that she might start spouting more banking terms, in which case, I would be digging my own grave.

In the end I gave up and told her 'company' and she requested for a french translation. WTH! If I knew, wouldn't I tell her that right away instead of moping around and staring blankly for like 20 seconds? Sheesh. So I told her the magic phrase, "j'ai oublié."

Things took a turn for the better and then the situation got a bit worse when we couldn't come up with a french magasin in Singapore. My partner said Cafe Les Amis. I contemplated Delifrance. And then stupidly blurted Chanel. Haha. How on earth would I know she was talking about food shops. Though she might have mentioned it while I was busy sipping my teh-peng. I don't multi-task well under stress.

Carrefour. Ding ding!! The inevitable, "qu'est-ce que vous achetez à Carrefour?"

Oh merde, I haven't been to Carrefour in eons. So the partner was asked to answer first, and she proclaimed to buy le fromage and le chocolat there. Not that I doubt her, but I have to admit, that was a brilliant idea. What do you buy in a french-ey shop? French-ey stuff. You can't go wrong there.

And the super-question that every french learner can, will and must master: "Et toi?" It's so useful to arrow other people, especially when you don't want to say anything else. For the uninitiated, "et toi" simply means "and you?" or "and what about you?". Simple as it is, "et toi" hold so much meaning that the power of these 2 words is almost unfathomable.

So I digress. Anyway, I tried the cheese move too. "J'achete du fromage aussi", meaning, I buy cheese, too! (Ya know, that's what every Singaporean does in Carrefour - buy cheese! cue: big friendly smile.)

The examiner is wise to my tricks and asks WHAT THE HELL ELSE DO I BUY THERE BESIDES THE DAMN FROMAGE, but of course, in more PC language.

So I'm forced to dig into the rusty vocabulary archive and toss out some other examples. Des legumes, de la viande. And because I was so anxious to get it over with, I even spouted examples, and by my superior classification methods, poisson (fish) is a viande (meat). I'm not sure whether I can get away with it, all I know is that the moment I said that stupid poisson word, I wanted to stuff my teh-peng cup into my mouth.

Yes and so much for the dreadful oral exam. Length post, I know, I apologize, but I can't help it. The highlight of my day.

Little updates lately because I HAVE BEEN SWAMPED. Studio recording frenzy: turkish ice-cream man was 3 hours late, a certain teacher was being quite a pain. Online editing for BAV tomorrow and I haven't gotten the EDL/cue sheets done yet. Panic! I must, I must, I must finish up all that work! Ack! Less than 2 weeks to les examens... double ack!

2005-10-16T22:25:00.000+08:00

What I woke up at 6 in the morning for:

Once again, I amaze myself.

2005-10-16T00:06:00.000+08:00

I saw an ad at the MRT station for a Nokia phone. Can't quite remember the model (too many of those 4-digit numbers floating around on the cellphone market these days), but the ad boasted a smart phone that had video-call capabilities. Kinda like you can hear AND see the person talking to you during the call.

If I remember correctly, the tagline was something like "Make eye contact".

Hmm, make eye-contact with what, I wonder? If staring at the lens of a cellphone means making eye-contact with the person on the other end of the line, then I think the term "eye-contact" needs to be redefined quite a bit.

2005-10-14T00:05:00.000+08:00

It's official. No MTV Asia for me. I don't know whether to feel pissed, depressed, or resigned. Bah.

2005-10-09T23:34:00.000+08:00

More twisty Alias updates. The whole pregnancy thing is getting to be a pretty nifty plot device. I like how they write it into the script too. Adds a bit of daily humor in an otherwise crazy thrilling show.

Sydney: It's a funny thing about pregnancy.
Hormones. Hooh!~

I woke up today...

...feeling...

...pretty...

...hormonal.

(Heh.)

(Gulp.)

Sydney: I'm gonna give you another chance. Where is Gordon Dean?

Bad guy: ...

Yikes, Spy-Barbie-turned-new-spy-momma's really feeling hormonal after all. But then again, this guy really had it coming. Hoho.

When Syd's hormones are raging, get out of her way. Or she'll get you out of her way. Literally.

Wooohoo!!

I'm slightly concussed and zonked but I can't stop watching Alias and Grey's Anatomy (which I accidentally found out is on its second season now.)

I need to sleep. High-quality, satisfyingly pure and unadulterated siesta sessions.

the banality of homogeneity

2005-10-07T23:31:00.000+08:00

Fashion fashion fashion. "Ooh, so fashionable, I also want to have/wear one!" Are we truly incapable of moving beyond being slaves to the mediocrity of urban fashion trends?

I hate to judge people, and I'm not judging anyone. I'm simply intrigued and at the same time, annoyed by how willingly and unconsciously we (that means ME too) just go with the flow, thinking what advertisers want us to think. It's almost as if the silly hypodermic syringe theory were true.

I was at Can 3 for lunch this afternoon, queueing up like a model citizen and waiting for my beef horfun. Nearby, there was this group of girls hanging around, waiting for their food too. I was just standing there, admiring the drink stall's very wide variety of beverages, when I noticed that two of the girls were wearing similar miniskirts.

Hmm. No biggie. Then at that moment, a group of people moved away, only to reveal another FOUR girls wearing MINISKIRTS TOO! And all the same length, too! The horrors! I suddenly felt like I was in some foreign dictatorship land where it had been decreed that all females must wear miniskirts that measure exactly 15 inches long! And they must wear similar tops too (i.e. spag straps and tank tops only)!

Argh! Somebody save me!!

Okay I know miniskirts are fashionable and comfortable (to some) and all that, but really, does your entire clique have to wear similar clothes? If I were from outerspace and my spacecraft just landed behind those girls, I would have thought miniskirts were the only garment female Earthlings had to choose from.

Yeesh!

There was this article in the papers some time back, commenting about how boringly the local girls dressed. I wouldn't say ALL local girls dressed boringly. I've seen some who dress very differently, some a little TOO differently, but in general, almost everyone's going for that damn shu nu look. Granted, it's very safe, no one's gonna throw you to the fashion police, but at the price of looking like mass-produced, creativity-impoverished pleasant/demure clones?

Yarrrgh! I know I don't have much authority in the area of fashion, but that's mostly because I can't be bothered and am too lazy (a dangerously large number of people think I live on-campus, such that when I appear in jeans and a shirt, they think I'm either going for a job interview or have to give a presentation). But that doesn't mean I can't rant about how pathetique and tres triste the whole darn thing is.

Singapore is known for being efficient, obedient, clean, etc, all in all, a very safe place. It's a pity, though, that the notion of safety extends all the way to dress sense.

PPSS - painfully pregnant super spy

2005-10-06T22:24:00.000+08:00

I was reading TWOP's recap for Alias 5x01, and it seems like I'm not the only one so affected by Syd's immensely obvious bump that the show's producers try so hard to pretend doesn't exist, and the ineffective pregnancy-concealing accoutrements she uses:

Hahaha. TWoP cracks me up everytime! Go read their recaps!

Just finished watching Alias Season 5 Episode 1 earlier today. It's as twisted as a pack of twisties! Without revealing any spoilers, apart from the fact that JG/SB's pregnant, though I figured everyone would already know, what with all that publicity given it by the media (and me in my previous previous post), I really hope its gonna be a good season. Last season was a bit weird, but hopefully it picks up, though Syd's protégé appears in this season and may replace her (nooo!).

Did I already give away a lot of spoilers? Sure hope I didn't cos all these were already revealed in the news quite a while back.

Anyway, back to the episode, Syd's pregnant, and as much as I hate to say this, the first thing that comes to mind when watching scenes with her in it (which is almost every other scene) is how restricted the production crew are when shooting, in order to conceal her not-very-concealable bump...

Poor Syd is resigned to close-up after close-up, while Vaughn basks in ALL THE GLORY of the wide shot. Or even medium shots. And I don't even like the guy. For starters, he can't act, and most of the time, he ends up appearing like a major jerk/a*s/himbo in the show.

And in shots that are wide enough to see Syd's bump, the poor unborn Affleck/Garner baby (or Vaughn/Bristow baby, depending on which universe you live in) remains hidden behind layers of loose clothing (hospital gown, sun dress, overcoat, cardigan/shawl on arm).

The poor baby. Missing out on his/her/its debut TV moments. I can already imagine 10 years down the road, the kid watching reruns of spy-mom in action, telling his/her/its friends "OMG that's me on TV! Next to Michael Vartan! OMG OMG! See? I told you!!"

Hoho.

2005-10-05T14:00:00.000+08:00

ALIAS SEASON 5 IS ON!!!

In the US, that is.

But no worries. Isohunt is my savior, has been, will be. 20% done at the mo, slowly but surely. Should be done in an hour or two.

Speaking of Alias, my amnesia's back to haunt me, and it's a worse case than Sydney's in Season 3. At least her amnesia was medically induced. Mine's natural. And apparently incurrable. I'm a gone-case.

I forgot to tune in to Ch 5's (very late) episode of Alias last week, and this week, I made several mental notes to tape it at midnight.

Surprise surprise when I remembered only half an hour into the show... So that's 2 episodes gone. Seok quick go get the DVDs!

(I've been reading hilarious recaps on TWOP and if it's what it seems, then it's gonna be awesome!!!!)

2005-10-03T22:57:00.000+08:00

(Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner & baby at a BoSox game last weekend)

Awwww. JG is such a sweetie, but her other half... erm.. yeah. Never did like him much anyway. I tolerate him only because of JG and the Red Sox.

Who, by the waw, have won a wildcard to go on to the post-season playoffs after beating the American League East Champions, the Yankees! Hoho! Estherisk shocked me by messaging "hey, red sox won!". I didn't even know the World Series started. So I got home and checked, phew. Post-season is just starting.

And the Braves are in too! National League East Champions! I knew they were going to win. Except that now I hope they don't face off in the World Series. Wouldn't know who to support...

I might have to eat my words about this week not being as bad as last week. For starters, I'm missing a guy to act. You never know how hard it is to find an actor until you really have to find one.

Everyone in school's busy busy busy. Yawn. And I am so behind on my readings for every subject except french (no readings. lol.) Oh, and the Indian class too. Ahaha. That class is simply a joke. Everytime I go for class (which is not very often) I don't know what to expect anymore.

2005-10-02T21:22:00.000+08:00

I spent the whole weekend at my uncle's funeral. This uncle was one that I wasn't particularly close to, even though I'm very much closer to my paternal family. So I spent more time being sad for my grandma. The whole 'bai2 fa3 ren2 song4 hei1 fa3 ren2' thing. I mean, you have a kid, you watch the kid grow up, teach him , watch him learn, live life, and then you watch the kid die; how much worse can that get?

Enough morbid stuff and on to others.

For reasons some might know, I owe estherisk un café. I would say it's a good thing, but I'm still holding out for other offers at the moment. Sorry to be so hush-hush about things, but you never know who might be reading (yes I'm referring to those stupid anti-blog cases lately).

And yes, obviously I survived last week. Let's hope this week won't be anywhere close to that.

2005-09-28T20:26:00.000+08:00

GRIMACE THE BIG PURPLE VALDA-COUGHDROP-SHAPED BLOB SAYS "HELLO EVERYONE!!"

-----------------------

The week so far -

Monday - Video assignment due (haven't started, don't have reference texts)

Tuesday - French test (haven't started)

Wednesday - Interview with company #1 & company #2, one morning, one late afternoon (no formal shoes. wardrobe in a mess. die.)

Thursday - Interview with company #3 (same crises as above), Ecotourism quiz (haven't started)

Friday - Indian assignment due (haven't started)

-----------------------

[uninteresting ranting about interviews, intervewers and the like.)

I am so not dressing up for tomorrow's interview with a certain music entertainment conglomerate. (My sources say it's quite a casual interview anyway)

Felt so out of place in the production houses where everyone was like jeans/t-shirt. Dumb interviews. Why do we have to dress up just for the interview? No one dresses like this after they start working.

Today's interviews were ... erm.... are over. Ri*ht An*le one was not so bad, but turns out the job scope is largely paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork. Dunno what she feels but I hope its a positive feeling.

Interview with Oc*re Pi***res was worse, I feel. Gone case liao. But then again, when the interviwer was describing the job scope and the intern from hel... I mean heaven (she did miraculous things on her job. the spoil market type) I started feeling a bit stressed... doubt I can ever accomplish what she did.

So anyway about the portfolio, I showed them my 202 video (which brought back memories about playing with the PD for the first time, gungho shooting involving dangling a camera over a toilet stall frame and holding it only by the tripod legs, and editing even though we didn't know a thing about storyboarding, scriptwriting, shots or continuity. and obviously it was also quite a pain to watch.) Then they asked lots of questions that I either answered hesitantly or confusingly. I even confused myself sometimes.

I blame the 7 hour interlude between the 2 interviews (the last interview started an hour late), during which I went shopping at MPH, Funan, and even met up for lunch with a certain O.F. celebrity.

I'm pooped, but I still have to do my readings for the ecotourism test and sort of get ready for the 3rd interview tomorrow, but I doubt I'll be doing much prepping, considering the feedback I'm getting from friends that have already gone for their interviews. Seems like a mass interview, move you from place to place to interview for different positions. I don't know.

But I DO know what I'll be wearing tomorrow. Casual. Which reminds me, I was in school on Tuesday and I was clad in normal clothes. Jeans and a shirt. Throughout the course of the day, FIVE people asked me why I was dressed so formally. One of them (a certain cow-loving individual) asked "Eh, you go discovery ah?"

To which, I responded like any normal person would.

"Huh?"

She repeated, thinking a mere repetition of a word would miraculously clear all confusion. "Discovery."

Me: "HUH?" (You might notice my utter confusion.)

Her: "Job interview lah!"

Me: "Oh. OH. You mean Discovery Channel. Ohhh. No lah I didn't apply for that one."

DIAAOOO!

Anyway, a breakdown analysis of the statistical data collected in this unintended experiment:

5 people thought I was formally dressed.
3 people (CS ppl) thought I had job interview.
2 people (french class ppl) thought I had dressed up for the roleplay presentation.

Conclusion: I am so never gonna wear a shirt ever again. People will either assume I'm presenting, being interviewed, or going to a wedding. Or something along those lines.

Oh, shopping bag contents revealed!

1. Merde, Actually by Stephen Clarke, author of A Year in the Merde (which I mentioned some time back in this post. It's a continuation of his life in Paris after the first year. (Sypnosis can be found everywhere, but here's a link.)

I actually walked into MPH just to kill time between my interviews, and lo and behold. Sitting on the New Releases shelf facing the entrance was this book. I couldn't help but recognize the 'MERDE" in that fantabulously-française blue/white/red-motif.

Needless to say, I grabbed it. That simple act of reaching out to pick up a book that weighs at most 300g cost me $28.35.

2. Latest copy of NatGeo. These days I'm fascinated by NatGeo. Maybe I'm just getting old because I never would have considered myself a NatGeo reader/NGC viewer. I'm considering getting a subscription because it costs half the price per copy as compared to the shelf price.

3. New camera bag (not the camera you doofuses)

Now my baby doesn't have to risk his flawless complexion anymore. It's a lightweight and fairly compact bag that can hold a DSLR!... though I don't have a DSLR. Oh well but I'm planning for the future. Just in case. You never know.

The mother asks how I want to celebrate my big 2-1. I don't even know whether I want to celebrate it.

Firstly I don't like big parties. I don't like running from group to group making sure they're feeling okay and not left out and the food is tasty and not making them sick etc etc.

I'd much rather just meet up with separate groups of people and have a peaceful meal. Such are the whims of old age.

Secondly, the day's awfully near to the finals. Not that I'll be studying but other people might be and I wouldn't want to distract them from their ... er... from whatever they're doing.

But, all that aside, I did consider having a party. At McDonald's.

Grimace says hi again! (Btw, Ah Fee looked like Grimace the other day)

I mean how cool is that? Make everyone wear stupid party hats and do kiddy things. What better way to usher in the age of adulthood than to have one last kiddo party thing?

Feedback, feedback. Greatly appreciated. Thankew.

[Edited because I realized Grimace's poses are quite standard. Either one hand up or two hands up. But then again, looks like that's all he's capable of doing anyway. Anything more and he'll be defying the laws of gravity or severely injuring his swollen purple self.]

2005-09-27T19:52:00.000+08:00

Monday - Video assignment due (haven't started, don't have reference texts)

Tuesday - French test (haven't started)

Wednesday - Interview with company #1 & company #2, one morning, one late afternoon (no formal shoes. wardrobe in a mess. die.)

Thursday - Interview with company #3 (same crises as above), Ecotourism quiz (haven't started)

Friday - Indian assignment due (haven't started)

Counting down to end of Swamped-Week. Got news yesterday that, for tomorrow's interview, company #1 wants me to bring my portfolio. Or at least, they say it would be 'good' if I could bring it.

Which is obviously not a problem at all. Except that I don't have one.

2005-09-23T21:34:00.000+08:00

I'm having a panic attack right about now.

Next week is packed to the brim.

Monday - Video assignment due (haven't started, don't have reference texts)
Tuesday - French test (haven't started)
Wednesday - Interview with company #1 & company #2, one morning, one late afternoon (no formal shoes. wardrobe in a mess. die.)
Thursday - Interview with company #3 (same crises as above), Ecotourism quiz (haven't started)
Friday - Indian assignment due (haven't started)

That brings the total to 2 assignments, 2 quizzes, and 3 interviews.

Merde, merde, merde.

2005-09-22T22:21:00.000+08:00

Heard of Wikipedia?

Probably.

What about Uncyclopedia?

Funny stuff. Bit brainless, but nonetheless worth checking out.

2 internship interviews next week, same day. Where's my 3rd (the one I really want)?

Bah.

By the way, I think the iPod Nano is... just that - a smaller version of the iPod. iPod mini, iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, yada yada. What IS the hype anyway... Silly gimmicks for people who love new inventions, pre-teen/teenaged girls with a fetish for all things small and cute, and metrosexual guys.

Seriously. No self-respecting guy should be seen with a pastel-metallic-colored iPod mini. The Shuffle and the Nano, maybe. But the Mini? Uh-uh.

If you ask me, all these spin-offs are just gimmicks to make you pay so much more for so much less. And spin-offs are bad. Look at CSI: Miami and CSI: NY - spinoffs of the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

My opinion: go for the original a.k.a REAL iPod (whichever generation, doesn't matter). Now, THAT, my friends, is fresh. Nothing feels as good in your palm as THE piece of technology that changed the face of digital music players by blurring the lines between style and substance.

(Edited because I came across news of the iPod wireless which reminded me about the Nano.)

2005-09-20T23:03:00.000+08:00

I'm a week late, but...

Ebay has bought over Skype!!

(News release available HERE)

First, PayPal (which was a fantastically smart move), and now Skype? So what, Ebay sellers can now include their Skype UserIDs for buyers around the world to contact them, in real time?

From the news release:

"Skype, eBay and PayPal will create an unparalleled ecommerce and communications engine for buyers and sellers around the world."

No kidding. Shrewd move. AND ingenius, too. Meg Whitman (and all of Ebay's execs) must be getting ready to line their wallets.

So what next? Ebay/Paypal/Skype merger with Google/Blogger? When that happens, we'll all know the end of the world is near. Hoho.

2005-09-18T13:48:00.000+08:00

I am really getting old.

Got home just now and took off my contacts cos my eyes were kinda itchy. And when I reached for my glasses which are usually on the table, I couldn't find them.

So I had to go around half-blind searching for them. Everywhere in the house. Even had to engage the help of my domestic helper (yes I have a domestic helper now).

After 20 minutes of futile searching, I give up, put on my contacts again, all resigned to getting a new pair of glasses made ASAP when I have this sudden flash of inspiration, and I find my glasses in the dustbin. (@$#!#$#%#@$!!!)

Of course, the bin is just next to the table and I may have accidentally knocked it in. But, HOW COULD I NOT HAVE REALIZED IT?!?!?!

Dammit. Oldy-schmoldy, blur, confused and forgetful. MERDE!!

2005-09-12T19:51:00.000+08:00

I know I'm slow, but I just realized the song that started and finished off the Mike Nichols film, Closer, was The Blower's Daughter by someone called Damien Rice.

Niiiiice.

As it is, I'm getting less and less in touch with the entertainment world. Jialat, how to get a job with MTV Asia like that? I can already imagine the interviewer's face when I start smoking during the interview and spout out names of the old-school (by today's standards) singers like BSB, N'sync, and F4. (Sorry man, those are the only few I can remember off hand, because I really don't like them.)

Think I better start listening to the radio or watching more TV. Might do me some good. Oh, or maybe start reading more of those trashy entertainment magazines. Like who's sleeping with who/what, who's releasing a new album when, which band's disbanded because the lead vocalist's having an affair with the guitarist's wife/daughter. The usuals. Day-to-day events of a typical rock star.

Anyway it's the recess week, and apart from going back to school to view/log/edit BAV rushes, there's only the field trip to Little India. Bah. Sometimes, I just wonder what I got myself into.

And the rest of the week? Tanning at the condo. Please feel free to join me if you wish to. I'm also developing a fairly unhealthy interest in Red Alert 2, thanks to my engineer sister, who keeps dangling the multiplayer-gaming bait in front of my nose. She knows I won't pass up on a chance to trounce some computer-ass.

Oh but of course, there's the silly Video I essay assignment too. Something about 'Art should conceal art'. Now how the heck am I supposed to come up with a 2-3 page paper on that? I've never even heard of this supposedly famous phrase.

Special mention - bon anniversaire to Ah Fee, a.k.a PsychoFee. Congratulations on being upgraded to the 21-only club and leaving me behind. Me! All by myself! Wahhh!

And now, back to my CSI DVD marathon.

2005-09-05T23:54:00.000+08:00

I am very tired, but I still wanna post something.

Something I stumbled upon today in my house.

Something I haven't seen in a long time.

Something I used to use a lot.

Something really fun.

Something cool.

(Did I mention that I love my camera?)

TADA! My pingpong bat! Fwah! So old-school and retro funky-munky (I honestly don't understand why monkeys or munkys are funky, and why people use the word funky - it really means being panicky, fearful, or weird/strange, the last one according to a friend of mine who did some research).

But enough about lexicology and linguistics. As I was saying, my pingpong bat! Man, how retro is that!!! I actually miss pingpong so much I took the bat and started smacking a ball against the wall, before getting shooed away by my father who claims I'm making stains on the wall. (Yeah, maybe if I hit the ball against the wall another 10000000000 times or so, we might see some pattern forming).

In the end I played a bit on the table in the garden. Which really is about half the size of a regular pingpong table. And I declare this the best form of training. I mean, with a table so small, you really have to react VERY FAST before the ball flies out of range, and you have to really aim well, because of the small table area. Geez. But fun, nonetheless.

Picked up a french phrase book from Kinokuniya yesterday, and I am very very very amused by some of the phrases in here. (Some had me rolling on the floor in laughter.)

J'ai eu récemment maladie véenerienne.
- I've recently had venereal disease.

Je ne suis qu'un objet sexuel pour toi!
- You're just using me for sex!

Je ne veux te plus revoir.
- I never want to see you again.

On hairdressing,
Je n'aurais pas dû vous laisser me toucher!
- I should never have let you near me!

And for some reason, the following phrase appeared in all 4 phrase books I browsed through:

Le guichet automatique a avalé ma carte de crédit!
- The ATM has taken my card!

Now that left me wondering whether French ATMs were really THAT unreliable, that it was mandatory for all guidebooks for France to include that very important emergency phrase... food for thought?

Anyway, something else I picked up at Taka yesterday:

Darth LEGO Vader. Hohoho...

2005-09-04T20:25:00.000+08:00

Je suis malade. AGAIN. (encore?)

Got up this morning with a slightly sore throat, aches and pains all over, but still went off to church. Then I started shivering throughout the whole service. And there I got my first confirmation that I was sick again. Because I never shiver, unless I'm sick. I don't get cold easily, thanks to the what I call the Polar-Bear Effect™ (polar bears have lots of fats to keep them warm, so do I).

So anyway I drove myself home, popped a couple of fever tablets, a couple of panadol for the headache, and shivered myself to sleep, preparing to get up in an hour's time to meet Wansi to watch Perth (more on that later).

I'm still sick, but it's more of nursing a bruised ego, because just yesterday morning I laughed at my sister and called her 'weak' - she's always the one falling sick. Now I have to eat my words back. Bah.

Oh, and I got my camera on Thursday. A bit of emotional/cognitive dissonance there, as I debated between the Canon S2 and the Panasonic FZ20. In the end, i took the Canon because it's about a hundred bucks cheaper (although the Pana looks so much cooler).

Still quite annoyed with the shopkeeper because I have to wait a week for the lens adapter and wide angle converter to come in. Grrr. I'm gonna coerce him into throwing in a couple of UV and polarizing filters too. Hoho. But I've been busy rushing 229 audio and video projects lately, so much that I haven't had much time to actually fiddle around with my camera.

Which reminds me, I swear I will smack the next person who dares imply that CS people are slack. Or that CS coursework is easy. I really will.

At the start of the semester, I met a fellow GIP friend on the bus and we were talking about courseload. He asked how many AUs I was taking and i was explaining that "Oh this semester I'm taking only 21 AUs because I can't get a GE to max out my 24 AUs."

And he was in shock, because he was taking less than that. Or somewhere around that. His reason: he didn't know that CS students took so many AUs.

With a sudden surge of indignance, I defiantly told him that the usual load for CS modules is 20 AUs, and a max of 24, including GEs. And I said (just short of snapping at him), "Just because we don't look busy doesn't mean we're not busy!" And he was all patronizing and went like, yeah... yeah, true.

Grrr. Just because we don't have stupid worksheets aka tutorials to complete doesn't mean we are free as can be tralala~ The ignorant and narrow-minded people. Bah!

On to Perth. Caught it at Lido this afternoon. When we sat down in this M18 theater, this mother and her 2 kids who obviously weren't anywhere close to the ripe old age of 18 came sauntering in. Thankfully some nice guy went and told them and asked if they were in the wrong theater. The happy menage a trois then proceeded to thank the guy and mumbled something about 'sharkboy and lava girl' (the silly 3D cartoon). The kid was whining about having to move, and the mother was whining about some 'man' who had told her this was the theater.

I hardly think Perth is suitable for kids. It was G-O-R-Y. The closest competitor would have to be Sin City, except that Sin City's gory scenes were mostly shown in the black-and-white/silhouette type of shot.

The show itself was really pretty decent, draggy at parts (most shows are), but there were a LOT of vulgarities. Is it really necessary? Does it add to the authenticity and 'flavor' of the film? Do Singaporeans really find it impossible to construct a single sentence without adding in a 'fucking' or 'cunt' or 'whore' (whether in English or Hokkien)?

Personally, I have nothing against cussing. I try not to, but I cuss too, especially when I walk into my bed, trip over my bags, shoes or wires, when I walk into metal boxes mounted on walls (see a few posts earlier - calmity day), or when I accidentally kick the wall, all of which happen a lot. (My psycho-motor skills are deteriorating rapidly. I need to join Ah Fee's rehabilitation program soon.)

I cuss, and to cuss is human. (LOL.)

But I don't believe majority of Singaporeans cuss several times in every sentence.

Like, "Let's go fuckin' eat some damn food! I'm motherfuckin' hungry!"

Really, do we speak that way?

And what made it worse was, there was this group of guys sitting behind me. I know this is gonna sound like I'm over-generalizing, but I'm 99.99% sure that they were either army boys, or fresh out of the army.

They burst into loud/high-pitched laughter everytime Lim Kay Tong or some other character used a vulgarity. Seriously. I mean, get a hold of yourself man! I know army boys use a lot of vulgarities in camp, but you're out in the civilized world now, so just because you can relate very well to punctuating your sentences with vulgarities doesn't mean you should disturb your fellow film-goers like this! I felt highly traumatized, and had this tremendous urge to shove my 6" Subway up their nostrils.

Honestly, I think army guys, like annoying kids/teens, ought to be kept locked up. Seriously, they go around terrorizing and trauamtizing us poor civilians with their scary behavior.

Even the fresh out of army ones, I can spot almost instantly in school. It's funny how my mind works, stereotyping people, generalizing and all. But I've been fairly accurate in my predictions lately.

Fresh out of army guys in school:

Observation #1 - They tend to walk together in small groups of 3-5. It's like some kind of safety blanket. Like they're still in the army, where they chiong sua and watch each other's back. As if some sneaky student/professor is gonna sneak up from behind and ambush them.

Observation #2 - Many look around in awe at their surroundings. It's not just the place that's new to them, it's the whole idea of being in a learning institution all over again, except there's no green camo uniforms and there are actually *gasp* people with XX-chromosomes! Whee!

But back to Perth. The army scene was funny. That was one scene where I heartily laughed along with the army boys behind. And as for the gore, sometimes I wish Lim Kay Tong would stop whatever he was doing already (stabbing, punching, etc). Like, man, the guy's already dead. Or he's definitely not going to live. But nooooo, he had to keep going on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and... well you get the idea.

And a segue to schoolwork again. Isabelle's coming back soon. Maternity leave's only like what, 6 weeks? I got a bit of a shock when the class started passing around a petition thing (in French), asking the current teacher Emmanuelle to continue teaching us and not stop after Isabelle returns.

While I really would rather Emmanuelle teach us instead of Isabelle (after last year's experience), it didn't seem very 'nice', did it? I mean, how would that reflect on us, and how was Emmanuelle gonna tell Isabelle the news? That the class hates Isa and prefers Emmy? Not a very wise career move, I would think, considering Isa's the sort of the lao da in the French department.

Anyway, Emmy doesn't think it'll work, because of numerous factors which I agree with, so it's Isabelle for the rest of the semester after the recess.

(I'm feeling a bit nauseous, and had to run to LS a couple of times throughout this post. Please tell me it's not a case of gastric flu again. Argh!)

2005-08-30T23:09:00.000+08:00

is it even legal to publish photos with clearly visible car license plate numbers? (found on a certain local news website's frontpage)

I sure hope the car owner doesn't sue me or anything. After all, this picture was publicly available on a popular news website.

P.S. Off camera-shopping tomorrow! Wheee! I'm not even waiting for stupid COMEX.
P.P.S. Cover letters are a pain to write. I am not known to write well under pressure. Stupid PI organizations.

2005-08-29T21:59:00.000+08:00

The balookoo is gone. Yay.

Fact #1: NTU and NIE do not communicate with each other, despite the latter being within the compounds of the former.

I managed to scare my sister with the possibility that our car could be stuck in NTU till the next day, because NTU authorities were going to close the roads for some bigshot (the PM i believe) to come attend NTU's 50th anniversary celebrations.

She, in turn, went to create pandemonium amidst her NIE classmates, as well as the lecturer, who was completely unaware of any road-closure news. NIE classes were apparently still running all the way till 5.30pm.

In the end, the lecturer ended class a lot earlier, after having called several people to confirm the scandalous news she heard from my sister (who had heard it from me, and I originally heard it from Yanru, who heard it from god knows where).

Come to think of it, I don't really remember seeing an e-mail from the relevant people informing us about road closures etc? (Unless in my senility I deleted the mail without even reading it)

Fact #2: It is very much better to be filming with Year 3s than it is with Year 2s.

I'm not in any way trying to be mean and derogatory to the kids or anything like that, it's just the general feeling I get after working with my BAV group this afternoon.

To summarise the session, it was some sort of surreal nightmare. Possible adjectives to describe the situation: unproductive, inefficient, directionless (if there is such a word). You get the idea.

Of course, not all is atrocious. The kids are more enthusiastic, ambitious (e.g. attempting very very VERY complex choreography that I would have fled in terror from, wanting the cameraman to pan, tilt AND zoom in at the same time).

And there I was like the frickin' dajie, pointing out where each wire goes, how to switch to auto-iris, that this shot won't work because there'll be a jump cut, spotting the camera crew's reflection in the windows, trying to tell them that usually people do a storyboard and shot list before the shooting itself, yada yada yada.

I say frickin' because I don't like the responsibility it comes with. How do you tell the group that keeps looking to you for suggestions and answers, that actually, I'm really only as qualified as they are (in terms of course fulfilment)?

Gah.

If anything, I think I better get used to this frolicking with the xiao peng you. After all, I'll be taking 203 in Year 4 (which Sam had to cheerfully remind me. hoho.)

2005-08-22T23:22:00.000+08:00

Today is calamity day. Or klutz day.

We were in the AVID studio editing for 322 and something funny happened. I forgot what now, but I keeled over with laughter, so did Sam, who was in a chair in front of me. She backed up, I was still keeled over, and BONK. Two heads, one collision.

Later on in that same fateful room, I went to pick up my stuff at the side, as I bent down, I smashed (literally) my head into a metal box mounted on the wall. One of those metal circuit/switch boxes that open with a key. I BONKED into it. And shocked myself because despite my clumsiness, I've never bonked myself so noisily before. Ever.

I honestly thought I was either gonna get a concussion or just collapse and die there on the spot due to brain haemorrhage. Yeesh.

Even later on, on the way out of the TV studio, I tripped over a couple of boxes on the ground.

I now have an ouch-ey balookoo on my head.

Never thought it'd happen to me, but yes it has. Thankfully it's not too obvious. Not yet.

2005-08-19T20:39:00.000+08:00

Making sentences in french with les verbes reflexifs makes me sound like a cow. If you speak french, go figure.

On to a bit of promotion,

British film director Richard Raymond's new short film, The Bridge, based on an original screenplay by Ludwig Shammasian.

Not sure if it'll ever get to our sunny island, but if it does, I'll watch it. Andrea Corr stars in this short film (about half an hour). Which brings me to my next point.

I hereby declare the end of my fanaticism for The Corrs. I still love their music, their musicianship, and them in general. But I'm no longer the 16 year-old hardcorr fan who would swoon and gasp and hyperventilate everytime their song got played on the radio or something related to them got mentioned. I'm getting to old for this.

So the next person who nudges me, gives me weird winks or one of those knowing "here we go again" looks when anything corrs-related comes up, I will smack him/her/it.

Back to first point. Independent films. Some people have asked me where I find out about nice indie flicks. A good place to start is the Fox Searchlight Pictures website. They're an independent arm of 20th Century Fox, and they do produce little gems now and then, like

Jim Sheridan's award-winning In America (pretty good soundtrack, very cute little girls, heartwarming show),

Zach Braff's Garden State (awesome awesome awesome soundtrack, quirky characters, Natalie Portman... lol),

Alexander Payne's Sideways (story revolves around 4 characters' intertwining lives, wine-tasting and wine. I haven't seen this one, but I heard its done very well amidst the more discerning film buffs in the US),

And of course, who could forget the 1999 film Boys Don't Cry? an astounding film starring Hillary Swank (who is power power power in Million Dollar Baby), and 2002's Bend it like Beckham? All distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, amongst many others.

For me, indie flicks are a refreshing change from those mega-budget Hollywood films. Those are good in their own eye-candy way, but indie flicks provide a welcome alternative, tugging at more heartstrings than typical Hollywood films do. And I'm more than happy to share these with my friends.

Attended BAV tutorial this morning and made a few more year 2 friends. As in, they know I'm not a retainee or some weird person appearing only in their BAV class. Somehow I always get mistaken for a retainee. Wei says back when we just entered ACJC, my new classmates didn't really dare talk to me, because they were speculating whether I was a retainee (I was wearing an AC uniform on the first day of school). Sheesh. I just didn't want to wear the RV uniform any more than I had to.

And NIE is evil. Indian culture/customs class, week 4, so far the lecturer has only showed up for one lesson. The other three were either cancelled or the lecturer just went MIA. And didn't even have the decency to e-mail us. So much for being role models and being the ones to mold young minds.

movie post

2005-08-16T22:19:00.000+08:00

On a tip-off from estherisk,

THE PERFECT CATCH???!! What kind of name is that anyway? (FYI, it was called 'Fever Pitch' in the US.) But of course, if you love the the Red Sox, Boston, Fenway Park, baseball, Drew barrymore, Jimmy Fallon, romantic comedies, or a combination of any of the above, yes you should watch it.

(I watched this BoSox-based romantic comedy next to Fenway Park, home of the BoSox!! Beat THAT!)

Anyway I spotted that dreadful poster while buying tickets for Bewitched, which, incidentally, is a mediocre movie, saved by the mere presence of Nicole Kidman. I loved Bewitched (the TV series, with the original Darrin) and Nicole does a pretty decent job of playing Samantha Stevens. She even looks a little like her. Or is that just my imagination? Perhaps.

Watch Nicole Kidman's reaction when the pop-corn pops in her microwave. That short 2-second part just entirely changed my impression of her. Now I'll never be able to watch her play sophisticated/classy/dominatrix/serious roles without having that 2-second reaction flash through my mind.

The film's a little draggy at parts, but it's generally light-hearted fluffy entertainment. Not as brainless as some I've seen, but most of the time, Nicole's the highlight. With Will Ferrell providing the occasional good laugh. Yep. Watch it if you're a Bewitched fan, a Nicole fan, or if you have money to burn (or you could always just write a cheque out to me.)

These days I just feel like sprawling on my bed. It's a back-to-school/back-to-bed feeling. Again.

P.S. BAV this friday! We're learning to set up and use the DSR camera! Yay! Just in time, after spending 10 hours filming wth it in Video I already. Timely, I must say.

P.P.S Yes I am camera-deprived. Just look at me. See how I go around camera-phone snapping. Yeesh. A savage disgrace.

2005-08-12T23:15:00.000+08:00

Word of the day - PITA a.k.a Pain In The Ass/Arse (depending on which side of the Atlantic you're from).

My PITA samsung phone. Less than three months old and it already has bad/loose connection. Half the time, I can't hear a single thing, even though I'm still connected. Probably thanks to the lousy wire connection in the movable parts of the slidey phone.

Now I have to take it to Jurong to get it repaired. The good thing is it's obviously still under warranty. But the next time I get a phone, please remind me NOT TO GET ONE WITH MOVABLE PARTS. I've had it with screen blank-outs, absent audio etc. #@$%^#$(*^&@!!

I realize that these days I don't write long, commentative or self-reflective posts anymore. Except to whine about things. But I've finally figured out why. Lately I've been happily filling out my organizer, day by day, and without realizing it, the week's packed. And so's the next. And the next. Half my time is taken up by regular, make-up or extra classes, which, by the way, love to run on Saturdays. A quarter is taken up by projects/work. That leaves a quarter, of which most is either taken up by church commitments or social commitments.

This is atrocious, not to mention, unacceptable! I need my free time. Personal time! Relaxation time! Reflection time! Deep-thought-formulation time! (hoho at the last one.)

[Not-very-discreet segue]

I was just talking to someone from school and he was looking for people to participate in his focus-group discussion. And then he said something that made me laugh.

"...in cs hv to beg ppl to act for free, interview for free, do survey/focus grp for free..."

Man, is it really THAT pathetic? LOL. But then again, maybe he's right. At least I can say "been there, done that" to all those things he mentioned. Talk about favors.

And speaking of CS, I told a friend when she asked about EBM classes, that it's tough, but I'm in the right place.

Looking at the other divisions,

PPC - I am often socially inept, and uncreative at best, so doing PR or advertising is hardly a smart move.

CR - It's just that: research (probably gonna get lynched by the CR people though). And maybe social sciences too. I'm not interested.

Journalism, while fairly fun at times, is not my forte. Writing under pressure and deadlines is a nightmare for me.

The past 3 weeks as an EBMer did make me question my decision. Did I make too hasty a decision? Did I fail to fully consider and weigh my options before jumping right into it? 3 weeks of bad storyboarding, cluelessness as to where to start a shot, whether to use an MCU or MS, having to re-record VOs and atmos, or how to set up the damn camera/mixer/boom/paraphernalia.

In my opinion, concurrently taking a foundational course AND an advanced course can be likened to the following scenario:

Week 1:
Lesson 1 - Throw you (non-swimmer) in the deep-end of the pool and force you to stay alive for 10 hours without a float
Lesson 2 - Go to shallow end to learn blowing bubbles and breathing techniques

Week 2:
Lesson 1 - Race in the SEA Games 100m free-style, win gold medal
Lesson 2 - Go to the shallow end to learn frog-style kicking

Week 3:
Lesson 1 - Race in the 100m free-style Olympics, win gold medal
Lesson 2 - Go to shallow end to learn paddling with a float

Week after week, the learning curve is just totally warped. I'm honestly not sure how good/bad it is emotionally/intellectually. And it doesn't help that I'm taking a class full of year 2s who are probably wondering who's this weird stranger popping in only during BAV that no one seems to know of. Partly because I never did tell anyone I'm year 3 or why I was taking the course only now. Everyone seems content with their own cliques. And I'm too tired to be smiley and self-introduc-ey with they hyperactive young ones. Me, cynical oldie. Them, hyper kids.

All this just makes me wonder if I can truly pull this off. It's tiring and tiresome, and it's also awfully tempting to just slack off, smoke my way through and let the rest of the group do most of the work. It really is. With a group size of 7, you have no idea how easy it is to just shrug and go "oh, forget it."

But I'm not ready to throw in the proverbial towel. Not yet.

Because I know this is where I want to be, and despite my weird-looking, nonsensical storyboards, my inability to answer ol' Olly's questions, my technical non-aptitude (at the moment), my severe lack of relevant experience compared to the rest of the group, I know am in the right place.

Yep, I'm in the right place. It just takes time to get the hang of it.

It's weird to finally be able to declare that I AM AN EBM-ER! Even though I entered CS with the aim of going nowhere but EBM, it's almost surreal that I'm already in my junior year! And an EBMer at that!

Yes, I'm proud of that. It's been quite a while since I last proudly declared myself as something. And it's a nice feeling. A little unfamiliar, but nonetheless, nice.

P.S. I wanna watch Bewitched and Wedding Crashers.

2005-08-10T11:26:00.000+08:00

proof that the year 2s are a hyperactive, over-enthusiastic and annoying bunch of kids:

26 new discussion posts?!

what, i just fell sick over the weekend, logged in this morning, and to my grotesque horror, i see this. thank goodness for my fantastic insight, that i didn't log on the day i fell sick. i'd have just fallen off my chair, keeled over and fainted on the spot not from the fever, cough, sore throat or flu that i was suffering from, but from a combination of sheer shock and unbelievable amazement at the audacity of those kids.

wah lao, spoil market ah?! slow down lah, old granny here cannot catch up leh.

those kids either have boundless energy or they're on drugs. every 830am lecture i'm sitting in the corner nursing my usual dosage - a mug of hot caffeine - and there they are chittering and frisking around like happy squirrels who just found willy wonka's nut room. god help me.

2005-08-09T14:54:00.000+08:00

Price: £34.99 Release/Despatch Date: Tuesday 25 Oct

FWAH!

CD-WOW is pretty decent i would say. Free worldwide shipping! And many of its prices despite being in GBP, are actually better than amazon.com's.

I'm beginning to feel the strain of taking BAV with Vid I as opposed to BAV before Vid I. ho hum.

2005-08-07T22:40:00.000+08:00

je suis très malade. ugh.

2005-08-04T22:38:00.000+08:00

just saw something...

mwahahaha!!!! NTU's attempt at appearing 'classy' and refined. wohoho. ahahaha. AHAHAHAHAH!!!

oops. maybe i should keep my disdain for all things nanyang to myself. lol.

2005-08-03T22:41:00.000+08:00

you know you're getting (or ARE) old when

1. you prefer class 95 to perfect 10. class 95 = adult contemporary. says it all.

2. you get insanely annoyed by people who TyPe lIkE tHiS oN tHeIr BlOgS oR hAvE mSn nIcKs LiKe ThIs~~*

^$#YD$%^$&*U#@!$!!! seriously! apart from being very taxing on the ocular nerves, it's tres difficile to understand your intention/emotion/meaning. i mean, if you type in UPPER CASE, readers know that you're probably emphasizing something or trying to show that you're 'shouting' etc. but if you use sTrAnGe CaSe, my mind will have to decipher if it's supposed to be read with fluctuating inflexion or something. does nothing for my already twisted mind.

have been doing a bit of freshie spotting these days and i'm proud to announce i can spot them a mile away. not literally obviously. some people never know whether i'm being figurative or literal so i have to state it. i don't have binocular eyes or anything equivalent to high-power telescopes. but yeah, i get all annoyed and mental-eye-rolling. at their enthusiasm, hyperactivity, very loud and excited squeals and yells.

big, fat, grumpy ol' me. always the cynic. i have become more pessimistic and skeptical in the past few years than i have ever been in my entire life. it's like the exponential y = x^2 curve. bah.

P.S. i miss my camera. or at least, i miss having a camera. never would have thought how much i need a camera until i sold it. which is strange, cos it's usually lying around doing nothing, except for special occasions. in the past few weeks, though, i've thought of using a camera on several occasions, only to realise that i don't own one anymore. argh.

2005-07-31T16:38:00.000+08:00

rush-homework-hour on sunday. again. yawn. some things never change. at least not for the better.

seems like this semester is gonna be a crazy/wild ride. only week 1 and i already foresee my no-life status. BAV + VideoI is really = madness. i ought to smack myself for my stupidity in not seeing this coming earlier.

dunno, some people seem to already be in the schooley mood. i guess some people just weren't meant for academia. bah.

and i HATE drawing storyboards. storyboards are just bad bad baaaaddd. i used to smoke through art exams in lower sec. draw some nonsense sweet wrapper and packet drink etc. or flowers. yeah. flowers. the yellow/orange ones along the carpark area in RV. birds of paradise? whatever.

and now i have to draw people? drawing the stupid 108 XLS, LS, MS, MCU, CU, XCU etc was already such a pain. i had to draw stick figures in my exam, and to be honest, they looked kinda sad. tres pathetique.

besides, i can't come up with a good story. can't help it when you have no creativity. and boring ol' me, what to do?

verdict: year 3 sem 1 - not a very good prognosis.

on a brighter note (yay!), after Azureus failed on me after some clash with the updated java thing, i turned to ZipTorrent, and it's cranky/wonky most of the time, but i was testing it out earlier, and lookie!!!

I T ' S U N B E L I E V A B L E ! ! !

yeah. now THAT's more like it. but only works for more 'popular' files that have tons of seeders/leechers. nice.

a series of unfortunate events

2005-07-29T15:41:00.000+08:00

1. french lessons

MY TEACHER IS ISABELLE MY TEACHER IS ISABELLE!

ack. of all the timeslots i switch, i HAD to switch to hers. but she's away on maternity leave, so it's another teacher for now. didn't do the retard act this time, thank goodness.

and i left behind this china guy in the class i used to attend. man, this guy is nuts. if you thought people from the PRC spoke insanely fast chinese, wait till you hear him speak FRENCH.

i'm like, woah, slow down, comrade! nobody knows what in the name of l'escargot you're talking about. except the teacher. which is err, kind of pointless cos she's not the one taking the class. it's us, here! hello! yoohoo!

yep he speaks Uzi bullet-fast. hell, he speaks french faster than the french themselves. (and u know the french already speak pretty fast). so i'm partly glad i switched to Isabelle's class. it's very stressful attending a class with this guy. he answers all the questions (not that i mind), but he makes us look reallllly retarded or something. yeeesh. though the teacher had to stop him from answering later on. ahahaha. now THAT is funny.

2. LB (aka laptop battery)

checked into laptop hospital and was diagnosed with a serious case of faulty battery. cost me one hundred buckeroos. and one night without the company of my laptop. actually i still don't have it cos the father is supposed to pick it up after work (cos i'm stuck in indian culture and customs class. lol.)

3. Muvee (aka my muvo square)

i dropped it. and now it can't start up. it goes click click click and the screen is stuck on the MuVo2 opening screen. i am awfully annoyed. after spending 70+ bucks to repair the friggin' earphone-out jack, now all i do is drop it from a height of less than one foot, and it hangs on me?! damn creative! i am so gonna get an ipod the next time this happens. who cares about supporting local enterprises.

off to intro to indian customs and culture class. haha. it better be good.

2005-07-25T20:23:00.000+08:00

1. french lesson

ISABELLE'S NOT MY TEACHER ISABELLE'S NOT MY TEACHER!

that apart, i appeared like a total retard in class today. i mean, i like french lessons (most of the time) but considering i haven't touched my french stuff for half a year, i played the part of french retard today.

the moment i stepped in the teacher started spouting french. bad news. my listening is bad. but nevermind, can still catch a few keywords here and there and guess at what she's trying to say.

it was supposed to be a refresher/revision sorta thing, so she started yakking off basic stuff, what's ur name, where u live, blah blah. and then she got to the voyager (travelling) part.

(please excuse the crap conjugation)

teacher: est-ce que tu voyages?
student 1: oui, je voyage.
teacher: et toi, est-ce que tu voyages?
student 2: oui, je voyage.

(repeat a few more cycles, then come to me)

teacher: est-ce que tu voyages?
me: oui, je voyage.

and so i sit there, all satisfied with my fantastic grasp of the french language.

then she drops the bombshell.

teacher: ou tu voyages? (or something to the effect of "where do you travel to?"

i blink a couple of times before realising she's talking to me. and waiting for my answer.

me: errr.. errrr.. errrrrrrrrrrr.....................

MENTAL BLOCK. i am totally speechless. the mind's gears are desperately trying to turn but due to rust and lack of oiling for prolonged periods, all i am capable of is more errrms.

and so the errrs continue for like 10 seconds, then a feeble attempt on my part to answer her.

me: je voyage a .... errm.... errr.... malaysie, errrrrr .... les etats-unis.... et..... et..... et..... la chine.

TEHH TEHHH!!!

all the prepositions wrong, not to mention very loooooong pauses and strange pronunciation. so being the nice and friendly teacher she writes on the board all the correct prepositions, en malaysie, aux les etats-unis, en chine blah blah. without outrightly correcting me. ooh, how NICE of her. lol.

and just as i thought, there, i've done it, now i can rest in peace for the rest of the class, she drops bomb number 2.

teacher: qu'est-ce que tu fais en chine? (or something like that. my memory fails me)

and i stare blankly at her for the second time in 5 minutes. for the life of me, i can't remember a single piece of vocab related to holidaying. all i can think of is faire du tennis, faire de la natation etc, which is ridiculous cos no sane person goes to China to play tennis or go swimming. other than that, all i can think of is l'escargot, le fromage, the french national motto and all that stuff, totally useless in the current tight situation i'm in. argh!

I CAN'T REMEMBER A FRIGGIN' VERB to describe stuff tourists do!!!

then 'regarde' pops into my head. so i do what i usually do when stumped during chinese lessons. real-time translation.

basically i want to say something like 'go and see stuff... see the... place.' which, come to think of it, sounds pretty dumb. but when you're under the nose, i mean, glare of a french teacher who seems bent on bringing out the most retarded side of you, anything goes. anything to get her attention AWAY from you.

so after several pauses and even periods of silence, i go, "errrmmm, je ... regarde..." and suddenly i can't think of what i would go see in china if i were there on holiday.

scenery?

nope, dunno the word.

trees?

errr, nope. who the heck goes to china just to see trees. i can already imagine how absurd that would sound. "i go to china to see the trees! ooh! fascinating, le bamboo!!"

how about... monuments?

hmm, is the word also monument in french? not sure. better not try.

and so i give up and start speaking english. lol. go there and see the erm... suddenly my english fails me too. i can tell that i have been promoted to Level 10: Ultimate Retard. i mean, i just can't think of a thing/place that i would see in china. i want to say great wall, but i dunno how to say it. and i don't even know what category is that. is it monument? structure? what is it?

in the end i just give up again and say "erm, i dunno... how do i say 'on holiday'?"

she gives me a 'man you're such a retard' look.

ok in all fairness, maybe she didn't. i was just being awfully self-conscious of my newly-found and cemented Level 10: Ultimate Retard status.

she tosses out some examples, like 'visite' (*smacks forehead* how could i forget that?!)

and guess what? she says fais de la natation!!! so people really go to China just to swim! unbelieveable! inconceivable! flabbergasting! i have so been enlightened.

but yes, thus concludes my very traumatizing french lesson.

2. males and their feminine side

two things i saw in school today.

firstly, guys everywhere wearing pink. this is absolutely annoying. i realize that some guys are wearing pink cos its fashionable! i am for men embracing their feminine side, since to begin with, we are all given different amounts of BOTH sides. but it gets annoying when guys wear pink cos its fashionable to appear so-called metrosexual. it's no longer about personalities, but sheer simple-minded fashion! no! as much as i'm not a pink person, i don't think it ought to be desecrated as such.

please, wear pink if you really like it or if you think it's just like any other color. red, blue, orange, yellow, green. but don't wear it if you're just trying to emulate the supposedly sensitive-type, metrosexual guys. really. it's just plain grotesque. especially those super act cool types. i can sense the vibes a mile away if you're a fakey-metrosexual/pink-poseur type. yeesh.

second thing i saw, a friend of mine, guy, was carrying a big tote bag. no names here, but some of you might know who. but yeah, he was carrying a big printed tote bag. not flowers though. and no pink. but the point is, it looked very normal on him. i'm guessing cos that's his usual personality/style. see? this is a REAL metrosexual/sensitive type of guy. not some fakey one. ugh. some people just try to hard.

and a separate case: while i was out at mc's west coast park just now, i saw this guy with (presumably) his girlfriend. doing some kinda of cross-stich thing. maybe embroidery. or sewing. but i'm guessing cross-stich cos it's easy. even i can handle it. lol.

while it's a rare sight (the only guys you usually see with needles are those in white lab coats) it's fun to see stuff like that. blurring of gender roles. maybe we'll finally progress to a stage where house-husbands are as much the norm as house-wives. where there are as many female chefs as male ones. where we see more male kindergarten teachers. where female construction workers don't get strange looks.

3. school

BAV this morning. sure was weird stepping into a year 2 class. i know nobody, nobody knows me. thankfully i met someone who was initially my year but stopped school for a year and is now doing year 2.

i hear ppl going on and on about how BAV + BJ = academic suicide. but no one talks about BAV + Video I = cross-level academic suicide? lol. i think i may have become the first ever test subject. both lecturers claim that their courses are heavy. and no normal student would be taking a year 2 and year 3 course at the same time. excluding exchange students. so maybe that's why no one ever warns other people about this other lethal combination?

hope i'm proven wrong and miraculously one of the two will prove to be slack. though i can almost already hear the 'HA!' or 'FAT CHANCE!' from my friends.

media management is nuts. like WTH?! i was not meant for management. lol.

2005-07-24T15:06:00.000+08:00

Lappybat a.k.a my laptop's battery is now comatose.

despite my immense dislike of Eight Flags, i shall have to pilgrimage down there to get them to revive LB.

that combined with the starting of the semester (again. yawn.), i can truly declare that my life is in ruins.

ugh.

2005-07-20T01:31:00.000+08:00

when will i ever be back...

2005-07-14T23:05:00.000+08:00

my life is in ruins.

all the jubilation and merriment over my last day at work today was for nothing. alas, i have to go back and one more day because the office still needs my invaluable services. ahahah. no lah they need someone to do the dirty work. fakey proposals, as my boss calls them, user manuals, documentations.

thank goodness no more telemarkteting. there's a new girl at work who has the potential to take over that section. hohoho. considering there are only 3 girls working in the office, one of them is a Norwegian who doesn't speak english as her native language, and i'm quitting. that leaves the new girl. poor girl.

silly office of guys insist that must be girl who does this kinda nonsense job. those sexists. tsk tsk.

2005-07-14T10:31:00.000+08:00

2 big news pieces of the week that i need to catch up on:

1. NKF vs SPH

'nuff said.

2. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas pornographic mod

now this was a bit of a shock to me. while i know that GTA is full of violence and sexually-charged themes, i really didn't think they would put REAL ponographic scenes in it, albeit hidden and requiring a downloadable mod to unlock this 'secret' scene.

now there's some major hooha in the US over this (as usual). not that there wasn't already hooha over this game in the very beginning when the first GTA appeared on the shelves. the usual players (parent watchdog groups, religious right ppl) vs the makers at Rockstar Games, and the ESRB playing the role of investigator. yawn.

Rockstar says they can't stop people out there from creating mods for the game, whereas the person who created the mod says all his code does is unlock the scenes that are ALREADY in the game.

anyway for those interested, here's one of the countless news articles on this issue. and if you are a hardcore pornographic material viewer and are dying to see the clip of the... erm... action, drop me a note.

my last day at work. FREEDOM! at last! even if it's just for a week, i'm happy too. now i know what puts me in a good mood. quitting from my job and having rest.

went shopping with my mom yesterday. i am turning into such a girly girl that it's scary. but the mother has good taste, what can i say. my sis and i are always whining that we never did get her fashion genes, and that she dresses more happening-ly and young-ish than both of us.

so we went shopping yesterday and i wanted to get a pair of slippers. gu-niang ones at that. yours truly a.k.a bigfoot couldn't get anything for a long while cos every pair that caught my eye was sold out for the larger sizes.

"miss, sorry this one sold out. largest is size 6."

OOH i wear size 6! ... like 10 years ago, that is. i need at least an 8 and it's exasperating to see so many slippers i actually LIKE and not get a size. then the mother just browses and points out a pair that i actually missed.

i ask for the largest size, and the salesperson shings out size NINE.

can you believe it?!?! of all the nerve! that's why i'm determined to bring the mother out every time i go shopping in the future. plus she has a car, and she pays for my shopping. hoho. she happily clocked up points on her PARCO card while i stood there and laughed at the irony of the whole spend-money-with-us-so-you-can-get-points-to-buy-stuff-from-us" system, as well as her aunty-ness. the mother has cards for everywhere. even FOOD JUNCTION. wahahaha.

2005-07-12T18:43:00.000+08:00

nearly fell off my chair today in the office when i saw the reminder e-mail from NTU's GIP office to submit the personal reflection essay. all this while i thought it was an optional thing, what with the cash prize and all. only today did i realize that it is a COMPULSARY essay.

shites. can't write under pressure. so much for being shrewd and all (see previous post). couldn't even tell the difference between required and optional.

2005-07-11T20:36:00.000+08:00

was checking my mail at work today when i saw this:

click to see an enlarged version. but in case you can't see, it's an e-mail from Paypal (or so it claims) saying my account will be suspended because they're upgrading/changing their database and there's some discrepancy with the information i gave them. and that the miraculous solution is to click the link to activate my account.

because i use paypal a lot for my ebay transactions, i was in sheer panic.

for about 3 seconds.

then i remembered that i didn't have a paypal account registered under this particular email address. and i was reminded of this site i chanced upon while doing some research for a proposal at work last week.

basically the site was all about e-mail spoofing and taking precautions. at that time i thought who would be that dumb to really believe it. well i did, even though it was for 3 seconds. which pisses me off cos i don't like being faked. especially by people i don't know, and people who are maliciously trying to fake me.

but back to the point of this post. breaking the da vinci code... i mean breaking the e-mail scammers' spoof mails.

at a glance, the mail i posted above REALLY looks like official paypal e-mail, and if even me the shrewd one (hoho... ok feed my ego, just assume i'm shrewd for this post at least) got tricked for 3 seconds, i'm willing to bet my ass that some people i know will definitely get tricked.

if in doubt of the identity of a sender, here's what to look out for immediately (this guide tailored for gmail users, but others can use as a reference too. i apologize for the bad quality of the pics here. but you can click on the pics to view the larger versions.)

1. AT A GLANCE

#1:
Look at the sender e-mail/ID or whatever. for gmail, it is listed right at the top. while the green text says confirm@paypal.com, the sender address is clearly stated in the < > as paypal@mythtv.lan. the green text is merely the username, which can be changed to anything you want from george bush to osama bin laden. or even pikachu.

#2:
Look at the greeting. Paypal has stated on their website that they will never address you as 'Paypal User' or some other impersonal greeting. they ALWAYS address you by the name that you registered with them. whether it be John Smith or Pikachu Wong or Wen L. Tan.

#3:
Look for stupid grammatical or syntax errors. As an internationally reknown corporation used by millions or billions of people worldwide, would they hire someone with bad english to write their OFFICIAL e-mail correspondence to ALL their users?

just one swift glance and i already picked out not one but TWO grammatical errors.

firstly, there is NO plural form of information. the word 'informations' does not exist in the english langage; rather, it is a common word in the not-too-obscure and wildly-popular language called Bad-Engrish.

even my 9 year-old cousin can tell you that information does not have a plural form.

and you do not 'provide with us'. you simply "provide us". any primary school grammar textbook will tell you that.

but of course, you don't need an infallible command of the language to tell that this e-mail is plain weird/illogical.

take a look at the reasons they gave me to convince me that my personal info has been corrupted. like, how can an 'invalid logout process' cause discrepancies to my account? any amateur database programmer will tell you that that's virtually impossible. sheer nonsense, in fact.

oh wait, unless i'm a hacker trying to disguise my database hacking/information amending as a simple logout process. but that's not possible. because as far as i remember, i'm not, and was never a hacker. hell, i couldn't hack through a simple password-protected Excel file even if i spent a year on it.

that aside, the e-mail just doesn't make sense. are they telling me that my account will be suspended and that i have to go verify my identity so that it won't get suspended? but then why tell me to ACTIVATE my account, since it obviously has not been suspended YET? you can't activate something that's still in activation. duh. another stupid and illogical mistake that professional copywriters/marketing personnel would never make.

ok. i'm being too critical. the writers are, after all, amateur spoofers. they should like take lessons from me or something. haha.

oh, and just a note to the spoofers or spoofers-to-be, it's PayPal, and NOT Paypal. big difference.

see the column on the right in the email? that part is clearly lifted right out of an official PayPal e-mail, cos all occurrences of the word are correctly used, i.e. 2 upper case Ps. whereas all the occurrences in the left section (the spoofed part) use the fako Paypal i.e. only 1 upper case P.

AND, these guys must be beginner spoofers. check out the text alignment in the following pic:

even if you want to doctor people's e-mail and just add in an extra line, common sense will tell you that you must follow the format/alignment of text in the email.

the first part ("For more information..." and "You should never give out your password...") is clearly aligned to the left, whereas the fako part followng that ("This process is mandatory, and if not completed... your account or credit card may be subject for temporary suspension.") is VERY obviously justified such that all the text stretches out and fills up the entire line.

tsk tsk. but good for us. cos tada~! another way to spot spoofs.

2. EXPOSING THE SCAM

this is a little more relevant to gmail users, but useful nonethless to any paypal user. or internet banking user or anything along those lines.

Step 1

click on the little blue link at the top of each mail that says 'More options' (circled by me in red). it will expand up a grey box under the initial 'From:...' line at the top, as shown below in Step 2.

Step 2

Click on the blue link that says 'Show original'.
(my email address has been blurred cos i don't need people emailing me at this spare email address that i rarely use.)

a new window will open with a page full of cheem text. no worries. all you need to confirm your doubts that this is a spoof e-mail is this:

though i only highlighted 2 lines, all throughout the text are the words "Received: from wfs-telemarketing.workforce.wfs etc..." there is NO way that paypal would use a remote/foreign server to send their official correspondence to their users all over the world when they probably have a super-server on their own. plus the fact that the server name has the words "telemarketing" in it doesn't make me feel any more at ease.

so there, one super-lengthy post on how not to get cheated by scammers trying to direct you to their spoof-ey phish-ey websites, where they trick you into entering your user ID and password, after which they would have full access to your credit card/bank account linked to the paypal account.

those scammers.

i immediately forwarded the e-mail to spoof@paypal.com as implored by paypal personnel on their website. i hope they get sent to jail. or at least get in trouble with the Official Scammers' Society (OSS) for having the audacity to send out such a badly spoofed email. that's the least they deserve.

2005-07-08T21:41:00.000+08:00

On better security, Dr Tony Tan says:

"We've taken measures within the MRT stations. For example, there are now no disposal bins or something where people can put bombs in. And this will continue."

I say:

"Then where the heck are we supposed to throw our trash? And you dare fine us for littering. Tsk tsk."

the great room exchange...

2005-07-03T00:11:00.000+08:00

... with my sister. involves not a full room swap but just a 75% swap. means some of my stuff and some of her stuff are still in our ex-rooms. but nevermind. 75% is tedious enough. left me with a sneezy nose and dusty hands. ack.

at the end of the day, all we really want is ...

to pass out in a decent bed. here's mine. one of the rare moments in the life of my bed that it's actually made. so enjoy the moment.

2005-07-01T11:45:00.000+08:00

Listen up brothers and sisters,
Come hear my desperate tale.
I speak of our friends of nature
Trapped in the dirt like a jail.

Vegetables live in oppression,
Served on our tables each night.
This killing of veggies is madness,
I say we take up the fight.

Salads are only for murderers,
Coleslaw's a fascist regime.
Don't think that they don't have feelings
Just 'cause a radish can't scream.

I've heard the screams of the vegetables, (Scream, scream, scream)
Watching their skins being peeled. (Having their insides revealed)
Grated and steamed with no mercy. (Burning off calories)
How do you think that feels? (Bet it hurts really bad.)
Carrot juice constitutes murder, (And that's a real crime.)
Greenhouses prisons for slaves. (Let my vegetables go.)
It's time to stop all this gardening. (It's dirty as hell.)
Let's call a spade a spade.

I saw a man eating celery,
So I beat him black and blue.
If he ever touches a sprout again,
I'll bite him clean in two.

I'm a political prisoner,
Trapped in a windowless cage,
'Cause I stopped the slaughter of turnips
By killing five men in a rage.

I told the judge when he sentenced me,
"This is my finest hour!
I'd kill those farmers again
Just to save one more cauliflower."

How low as people do we dare to stoop?
Making young broccolis bleed in the soup!
Untie your beans, uncage your tomatoes,
Let potted plants free, don't mash that potato!
Wo, wo, wo...

I've heard the screams of the vegetables, (Scream, scream, scream)
Watching their skins being peeled. (Fates in the stir fry are sealed)
Grated and steamed with no mercy. (You fat gourmet scum)
How do you think that feels? (Leave them out in the fields.)
Carrot juice constitutes murder, (V-8's genocide.)
Greenhouses prisons for slaves. (Yes, your compost's a grave.)
It's time to stop all this gardening. (Take up macrame.)
Let's call a spade a spade. (...is a spade, is a spade, is a spade...)
Is a spade, is a spade, is a spade.

(Carrot Juice is Murder by The Arrogant Worms)

---------------------------

i don't even like vegetables that much but this song sure brings back hilarious memories of crazy wailing/singing and poking fun at vegetarians.