just do it!

nono, this is not a commercial spot for nike. i hate nike: overpriced, shitty design, poor build quality. but that's besides the point.

now the idea i want to put forth is how this slogan has become such a platitude that it's bordering on making whoever blabbers it seem a bit senile - much akin to a moose taking a huge crap. that's if you even know what a moose taking a huge crap sounds like. i must admit that i haven't the faintest idea. so you get my point? obviously not.

anyways here's some very apt embodiments of how the ubiquity of this hackneyed catchphrase epitomises human naiveté (no i am not using a thesaurus so eat my shorts) and makes for some pretty hilarious sights:

classic, self explanatory

now this one... look closely at the sign above the ad

you see what i mean? so while i was looking through some adverts, some anti-smoking campaign ideas caught my eyes, which i thought were pretty cool and much more creative than just rubber stamping grosteque images of rotting human body parts on cigarette packages:


and finally one of the must see random adverts. happiness guranteed:

p.s. to clément: good luck for the piano recital! the way you played the 2nd piece was amazing, so i think it's the right choice! you really gotta thank me for swaying your mum's opinion. now... who's da man?


+listening to: shine by slash's snakepit

» Read the Full Post of " just do it! "...

can i have a nice day, upsized, please?

life is retarded.

i fell asleep in front of my computer last night trying to get the 'live' stream of hong kong rugby sevens on TVB Pearl to work. can you imagine waking up to the alarm tune of "Uncle Fucka" in front of your computer and thinking "where the F@#% am i???", quite. and don't you dare diss my alarm tone, it once won the Best Musical Performance at the MTV Movie Award.

godamnit i could have been there (this previous post explains why)! okay if i'd heeded my dad's call to maybe go back home for a while after A's, i would have known when the tickets would have been on sale. then i would have stayed until the thing opens or maybe come back to singapore and just go back for the weekend to watch it and then come back again. argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


and the most agonizing thing is that the 'live' stream is crap. i get approx. 3 seconds of live footage every 2 minutes. i can only wish i am in hong kong now.

it's about 3 hours away from stelly's party/class gathering. and i'm sitting here like a moron staring at my computer screen trying to catch some 'live' action. i came all the way home from school from a whole morning of the scorching sun just for this shit.

but as a whole i'm pretty satisfied with this morning. the new guys are learning fast. and hopefully i've taught them well enough. i really want to see them do well this year, hands on heart.

let's hope tonight is just as fun. can't wait for the gathering later. what i need now is a much desired cool shower to get into the chilling mode.


update: okay only took 1 picture, while we're preparing the cocktail. there's just too much to do (okay, eat...) to waste time on taking pictures. heh.

salut!


+listening to: my guitar wants to kill your mama by frank zappa

» Read the Full Post of " can i have a nice day, upsized, please? "...

misc

feeling really random at the moment. so i shall transform into "intellectual" mode and do what intellectuals do best: when in doubt, make a list.

ok so here are the things i'm quite glad about at the moment:

1. found a live online stream that shows HK Sevens for this weekend!!! hopefully it stays live...
2. my cough seem to be getting better.
3. it did not rain today.
4. reliable sources say rj camp labels hc a major threat for group stages??? apparently my batch gave them quite a scare last year, for which i'm deeply flattered.

now to things that i'm not really satisfied with:

1. i'm still hungry after lunch.
2. my knee is acting up again for no good reason.
3. the sole on my boots are coming off. damn it, just when i don't need another new pair of boots.
4. my hair is out of control, majorly...
5. can't seem to find a live stream for supersports anywhere. the server seems to be down or something. that means no super 14 until it comes back. which also illustrates the age-old principle of life that good things never last.
6. i need a real girlfriend job

edit: it DID rain today... so damn jewish.


+listening to: fall to pieces by velvet revolver

» Read the Full Post of " misc "...

die another day = live everyday (until then)

i've realised this morning that i've become quite narcissistic.

i was actually blog hopping around looking for interesting reads, and i inevitably ended up on my own again. i never used to do that. things were that i'd blog about what was on my mind at the spur of the moment and forget about it.

nowadays i keep going in circles in my own mind. all these free time is becoming unhealthy. and i'm feeling tired ALL the time, for not doing anything. life was infinitely more interesting when you have tonnes of worries/obligations/responsibilities/homework.

i thought going out would have helped. i used to enjoy strolling around town or whatever random places by myself. not that i detest it now, it's just not as interesting as it seems to be anymore. and it used to be that i'd walk into a bookstore like kinokunya or a cd shop like gramophone and just hang around for AGES, because everything seemed interesting and fresh.

somehow all the colours around me seem to have taken on a darker shade. maybe it's just pre-college blues, maybe it's got something to do with adulthood? i long for the day when i'll be FAR, FAR away from home but then again the definition of home has never been deeply rooted in my mind. i'm not a home-ly person. as long as i have a little room with a bed, a desk and internet access, i'll be more than happy.

something is missing and i don't know what. it's not something that i can put a grasp on. if only i knew what it is.

i'd love to read about all the stuff that i've blogged about for the past 5 years, the enoumena.net and bo0.com days before i couldn't be bothered to pay for a domain and moved to blogger. it'll be like traveling back in time. unfortunately the backup database was lost when my old external hdd died on me unexpectedly, argh. i want to relive those moments.


+listening to: the great gig in the sky by pink floyd

» Read the Full Post of " die another day = live everyday (until then) "...

a walk around town

i forgot all about the morning rush hour traffic as i was inevitably stuck in that sticky situation again. getting rubbed shoulder to shoulder, jammed in an mrt train bound for the city.

my intended visit to the canadian high commission was the 2nd time in 2 days. i was there yesterday too, only unaware of something called an "easter monday" for which the high commission had kindly decided to shut its doors to the general public.

don't be fooled by the seemingly intimidating name of a high commission. it's really just a leased space in an office building with 1 counter and 2 police guarding it, much to my surprise/dismay. i would have thought such a vast country like canada could have afforded to fork out some money to at least get their own little building.

and i saw this extremely funny framed poster on the wall. it's entitled "picture perfect", with what i suppose is the french translation underneath it. can't really remember how it's spelt, i can only imagine it'll be something like "lé picturé pérfrénchzsúçkz". anyways it shows various right and wrong examples of passport photos of random people. i can see obviously why some of those are deemed unacceptable: people wearing beanies, sporting sunglasses, head tilted sideways, weird coloured backgrounds, underexposed photos, etc.

and so one of the examples really made my day: it shows this nice lady in a perfectly proportioned photo that looks pleasing to the eye. so i asked myself "what's wrong with this one?" then i looked at the correct example beside it. the only visible difference i can spot is that in the wrong one she's got a gentle smile on and in the correct example she's got this retarded stern shit-face look. puzzled as i was, i read the caption of the photo that explains to you what's the problem. and get this: it says "non neutral expression". i almost laughed out loud. how stupid can these regulations get. i mean so what if you smile on your passport photo? it's not like they can hope to pick out potential terror threats by judging who looks the most shit-faced while looking "neutral". i so wanted to take a picture of it but then i realised they took my phone and mp3 player away before they let me in. only if i had one of those mp3 player embedded t-shirts, i'd love to see how they would try to take that away from me and leave a half naked man running around in the high commission.

but anyways just some random photos:

the elevator in the building is really cool. it glows red for going down, and green for going up! and a cool ceiling to boot!

a water feature outside the building, i thought it was cool as the water is flush with the sides without overflowing so it looks like a huge piece of glass

this is the building where the high commission is at: one george street (that's the actual name of the building and it's also its street address)

so this is what we see from afar that makes up the skyline of downtown

another water feature outside the OCBC building, it also looks a lot cooler in real life

a very cozy street called market street. it really reminds me of the days in hong kong. there's also a great many restaurants along the street, shall go try some before i leave here

i was bored and didn't want to go home so i went to sit by the river. it's really tranquil in the morning because there's virtually no one besides a handful of tourists

clarke quay and its many shophouses

the sun shining right over fullerton hotel

after a while i decided to walk all the way to cityhall because it seemed like a nice sunny morning for a walk. oh boy was i wrong. the sun was absolutely scorching but never mind that, i discovered something really interesting:

here's the shot i took at the padang of the cityhall area:


and here is the official johnny wilkinson desktop wallpaper taken from the adidas website:



now compare the two side by side:

can you say: "WOW"

doesn't it look REALLY similar minus and wide-angle lens and difference in angles? when did johnny wilkinson come to singapore? oh well...


+listening to: another kind of green by john mayer

» Read the Full Post of " a walk around town "...

a sad day...

dad just called. grandpa passed away.

he told me to call grandpa over the weekend because his bronchitis acted up again and this time it was serious enough that he had to be hospitalised.

i didn't call. i didn't forget. i was too lazy to pick up the damn phone.

it's just all the world's guilt and me now.

i don't wanna be seen as the prodigal son, the unfilial grandson. i didn't even get to say goodbye.


fuck.

» Read the Full Post of " a sad day... "...

coffee

i'm drinking coffee incessantly. it's starting to worry me. already had 3 cups after dinner and still wanting more. wtf...

» Read the Full Post of " coffee "...

dirty little politics

politics is perhaps one of my least favourite subjects, not because i'm against it in principle. in fact i think it is absolutely necessary because without politicians, we'd all become a bunch of barbarians and savages. rome would not have been the mighty republic without its senate, even though it's filled with aristocratic scumbags.


however the reason with my dissatisfaction with politics in general lies with the fact that politicians are all two-faced fucks (pardon my french). The taiwanese election just concluded on saturday. as expected Ma Ying-jeou from Kuomintang (KMT) beat Frank Hsieh of the ruling party.

in principle he's against Taiwan's independence, calling to boost economic ties and normalisation of cross-straights relations and what not. but isn't that what the notorious outgoing President Chen promised before he came into office? well, minus the anti-independence part. it turned into another story once he actually got his grubby meathooks on the steering wheel of the behemoth bureaucratic machine. like i've always maintained, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

there is simply no certainty in the politics business. it's as much about dirty deeds and power plays behind the scene as actual politicking as seen by the noble citizenry. and oh yea, i love watching the parliament in taiwan on tv. well not particularly the topics up for discussion - those are usually about as interesting as the life story of a sloth.

the main attraction is how they take democracy to the next level. i think chinese people as a race do not mix well with democracy, because in my opinion it's in our genes to be hot-headed and and get carried away with what we do. effective democracy demands a rational, well-informed citizenry, who possess their own opinions and judgments and are not easily swayed by nonsensical hearsays or become cantankerous mobsters at the slightest provocation. we (chinese people) either go for outright dictatorship ala ancient china, pseudo multi-party socialism ala present-day china, *self censored in fear of persecution* democracy in singapore, or steroid - laden - about - to - explode - in - your - face kinda democracy in taiwan.

the drama in the taiwanese parliament amazes me: people spitting on one another, throwing coffee mugs at each other, outright bar-brawl style kungfu fights breaking out at random, speakers screaming profanities at the top of their lungs into the microphone. and these are just some of the more common "happenings" to say the least. to an outside observer, it's nothing short of jaw-droppingly hilarious.

and interestingly, i actually read the news article about the taiwan election at al jazeera. it's not half bad really, somewhat a refreshing change from your everyday western observers' point of view.

read more: Taiwan's Opposition wins election

» Read the Full Post of " dirty little politics "...

ticked off...

okay now i'm really ticked off. because i have been leading a frugal and austere lifestyle since last december. that means no excessive binging on fast food (which is a waste of money), controlling my habits when i do go out, no new cds, t-shirt buying put on hold, no more new shoes, NOT CUTTING MY HAIR (okay this one is for another reason i shall not go into) and finding ways of earning money.

and i have saved a considerable amount, not that much but enough for the original intended use:


which takes place here:


doesn't it look lovely? so being my naive self, i finally decided to put my plans to action in the past few days. so i checked the jetstar website and a round trip to hong kong would cost me about 200 odd dollars, close to 300.

i was pretty happy up till this point. seeing that i could probably make this work and it signals my partial independence, planning this all by myself and not having my parents pay the airfare all the time. so i went about getting myself some awesome tickets, probably a shiny 3-day all-access pass to the event. and the moment i read what was written on the website i was horrified. the tickets for public sales were already sold out last december!

in a moment of panic, i tried, in a frenzy, to search for websites that still sold tickets, and these are the flabbergasting sight that greeted me:

footballtickets.eu.com : roughly S$824

soldouteventtickets.com : roughly S$982... right, the name said it all

getmein.com : same story...

worldticketshop.com : a whopping S$1393 !!!

Now compare these to the original official price:

HK$1080 = a mere S$192...

great, the grand total would have run up only to about S$492, and i don't even have to stay in a hotel like those tourists, only if i'd bought the tickets earlier. i'm starting to hate myself, all hopes have gone down the drain. i don't know when will be the next time that i'll be able to catch the hong kong sevens again. the fact that i'll probably stay there for a month before uni starts does nothing to help. now, why did i miss the singapore sevens in 2006? i'm hating myself really badly right now. and when i'm pissed off, i tend to spend money, like there's no tomorrow. argh...

» Read the Full Post of " ticked off... "...

another outing!

yesterday was great. i've been looking forward to another outing to catch up with the lovely people of 63. and i counted 18 people!

zhengyan looks so happy

donkey smiling away. he was saying how this girl kept looking at him -_-"

congregation of the...?

must be something on the floor...

oh and i almost lost my wallet sitting on the floor. it was right beside me. apparently some cleaning uncle swept my wallet away and gave it to some security guard who called me up to go collect it. so embarrassing... anyways, see you people next saturday at stelly's house for steamboat again! this is like an outing galore, can't wait!

» Read the Full Post of " another outing! "...

why wash your car?

on a fine beautiful sunny morning, the common sight in the car park downstairs staggers me: middle-aged men washing their cars.


what a meaningless way of passing the time. you don’t wash your vacuum cleaner or your television set, you have a machine to wash the dishes and you employ a maid to clean your windows. so how much do you have to hate the sight of your wife and children before you think, “i’d rather go outside and spend a couple of hours shining my wheel nuts”?

i am aware, of course, that many men do hate the sight of their wife and children. doctors even have a name for these people: “anglers”. but even the concept of sitting in the drizzle by a canal for six hours fishing for an elusive luohan fish is not as daft as washing a car.

first of all, it’s very hard work. you have to do all the exercises favoured by homosexuals in gyms. bending over, stretching, rubbing. but at least when homosexuals finish, they have glistening, toned bodies that make them look good. you? you’re just going to end up with a slipped disk in your spine, while losing what's left of the 20 or so strands of hair you have left by the mili-seconds. and the more you clean, the more you’ll notice is dirty. if you’re not careful you’ll end up polishing the inside of the tyre valves and then not wanting to use your car if it’s raining.

and i see you armed to the teeth with your arsenal of weapons? are those the uber - secret - formula - developed - on - mars cleaning products that are available in supermarkets? “simply spray onto the glass,” it says on the tin, “then, after two minutes, wipe down with a clean cloth.” rubbish. you can never trust any instruction that begins with the word “simply”.

why are you washing the car in the first place? a car will not get smelly armpits or soggy groin. bathing it will not increase its life expectancy or decrease the chances of a breakdown. all it does really is demonstrate to others that you have a tiny mind and an empty life. i want you to think carefully about this. can you picture in your mind george clooney washing a car? quite.

look to our middle eastern counterparts like qatar, they have realised that it rots the mind (and thirsts the people) and that's why washing your car is forbidden and heralds death by stoning and a fine of QR 15,000.00, though the methods by which you'll pay the fine after getting stoned to death escapes me. nevertheless there's simply no place for such extravagance and useless nonsense.

oh, and here’s another thing. washing a car is the only time you ever get up close and personal with all of its panels. which means you will find a million depressing little dings and scratches that you would never have spotted had you left it caked in grime.

and in the ultimate hypocrisy, let me proclaim: get a life gentlemen. i'm tired of watching you wash your cars from my window =D

» Read the Full Post of " why wash your car? "...

10,000 Blasphemous Cock

...from the director of the independence day and the day after tomorrow, came probably the shittiest movie that he probably directed so far, whoever he may be. i can't even be bothered to check.

that is the extent of the shitty-ness as far as the movie goes. i'm not trying to be cynical or overly harsh towards this film, but the amount of misdirection and deceit present in the trailers have seriously upset me. come to think of it, i had such high hopes for this film that even when people told me it was crap, i went ahead and saw it. it is therefore hard for me to remain objective on my perceptions of this film.


the poster, AND the trailer obviously showed the lead character having a go at the sabre-tooth tiger. that was the thing that attracted me in the first place. let's just say it turned out much differently, in an almost homosexual manner. some parts of the movie were so humorous, it got me laughing at a character's hair. other times it was so intriguing i had flashbacks about the commercials that were shown before the movie started.

and then there were those priceless moments where things that happened surpassed all logic and common sense. i had to constantly tell myself that "hey, wth right, it's 10000 BC, anything can happen". but surely, not dinosaurs and instant - resurrection - right - after - you - get - shot- in - the - chest - with - an - arrow? i mean even JC had to take a breather when he got crucified, before he got resurrected, no? so, wtf?

i can't even be screwed to say any more about it. the name is synonymous with horse manure to me from now on. now, the next movie that i'm dying to watch? IRON MAN. for starters it has about THE coolest sound track ever other than school of rock. the theme song for the movie? what else can it be, it's iron man of course! everytime i hear that satanic sabbath riff my blood boils! hope this movie is as good as its sound track goes.

cheers!

» Read the Full Post of " 10,000 Blasphemous Cock "...

confessions of a troubled mind: i like men with odd shaped balls...

i have to admit: the sight of men with odd shaped balls turns me on. and NO i'm not gay, neither do i get turned on in the sexual way you perverts.

i have never addressed this issue formally, but i think it's about time i do so. i am not exactly sure when my fascination with the sport started. i do have faint memories of playing it with a bunch of friends on rainy days on the ntu soccer pitch. because when it raind it usually meant we can't play football. so we naturally turned towards the natural alternative - barefooted one that is, with an oval shaped ball, where boys can fool around and roll in the mud and go home to a shelling by their respective moms.

and i also have fond memories of watching the 2003 world cup at asif's house. it was the first time for me watching it on tv. all i remember is bodies piling on top of each other and men running at one another in barbaric manners and trying to wrestle each other to their deaths (i thought). it looked infinitely more genuine than anything WWE or TNA has to offer, and they looked a lot more ferocious in their pure black jerseys. and that was also the first time that i heard the term "The All Blacks" and witnessed the Haka. Asif, being a kiwi, was immensely proud of the all blacks of course, and so we inevitably all became all blacks fans, albeit involuntarily. i'm not even sure if i knew of any other teams that existed at the time, probably only the wallabies, or england.

i think it was that moment. the score was 17 - 17 in extra time. everyone looked fatigued and lifeless. the match seemed to be going nowhere. we were all sitting on the couch at asif's house, on a sunny sunday afternoon, when we should be outside playing football. i watched as the ball was being passed out from another "pile" of people, into the hands of this blond guy. i've heard asif tell me this guy is the equivalent of david beckham in rugby. i thought he certainly had the looks. then the moment happened. he took it onto his right foot (i later learnt he was left footed) and executed the perfect drop kick. for a second the time stopped. the ball hit the ground, and set off a gargantuan wave of camera flashes in the stadium, then he took a swing and the ball traveled between the uprights in slow motion.

i wanted to be like johnny wilkinson. i wanted to BE johnny wilkonson. flyhalf, such an exotic word to me. when the first time i played the game in school, the coach told me to play stand-off. i remember feeling a little disappointed, because i wanted to play flyhalf. and only a little later i realised how foolish and unfamiliar i was with the jargons of the game. first five-eighth, stand-off, flyhalf: they are the exact same thing, differentiated only by name depending on your geographical location: my dream came true.

then i saw the videos of the 2nd test match on the lions tour of new zealand. a particular player caught my eye. he was 5 ft. 11, about my height, but weighs a whopping 91 kilos from the on screen stats. even though he was a sub, the moment he came on it became electrifying. he scored 33 points in that match - 2 tries, 5 penalties and 4 conversions - more than anyone has ever done against the lions in one match.

forget wilkinson. his name is dan carter. he eventually became the resident no.10 shirt in the all black jersey. he's the ultimate player, a player's player. i think it's these kind of players that kept my passion burning along with the spirit of the game. i love the brutality, i relish the discipline, i honour the brotherhood and i live for the team. and to think that all these boils down to an odd shaped rubber ball, all for that extra inch, that elusive line, that one shining moment.

» Read the Full Post of " confessions of a troubled mind: i like men with odd shaped balls... "...

st. patty's

let the celebrations begin! drink it up then puke it all out, massive hangovers in the works! cheers!

st pat's day parade in BEIJING!!!

» Read the Full Post of " st. patty's "...

updates

time for some updates of some interesting turns of events over the past 24 hours.

first and foremost, NUS open house sucked. it totally lacked any life even though they seemed to have spent loads of money on the signs and such. case in point: the arts and social sciences faculty talk was the MOST boring one i have ever attended of this sort, and the speaker just droned on and on without regards for the audience's well-being. i can only imagine what the engineering talk must be like... and the food tent they set up was a complete rip off, i regretted every single cent i spent there, not to mention the cca exhibition looked like a primary school fun fare. ludicrous...

so onward to harbour front we go after the open house, with every intention of catching 10,000 BC but... we didn't. the movie schedule was all screwed up and the earliest show was at 7, so out of desperation and exhaustion, we walked/sat around aimlessly. looking at all the random cosplayers who seem to show up just as randomly all over the place.

view of sentosa from vivocity

lots of random cosplayers and photographers

more random cosplayers

the bookstore with the best view, period!

yesterday also saw the RBS 6 Nations concluded. i was overjoyed at being able to watch it via online streaming. it just feels so different watching a match live rather than days later. but the thing is, you can't really bat an eyelid, or else you'll miss the action. i'm embarrased to say that i fell asleep for wales vs france, but i knew they were gonna win anyways so it doesn't really matter. really great to see wales winning the grand slam. and italy beat scotland, which is no small feat.

also on a slightly disappointing note, the luck o' the irish ran out as they bowed out of the 6 nations on a low - a defeat against england, in which danny cipriani played a vital role in my humble opinion. he is definitely THE next player to watch. so much better at open play, adept at making the break, clinical at the kicking game, good vision, ambitious: everything you'd want in a world class flyhalf, and half of which wilkinson can't supply.

it's high time for a regime change in the england number 10 shirt. they need to stop building their game around an uninspiring wilko. he's good at kicking, so what? a world class flyhalf is a COMPLETE player and commands the game. i bet we'll be seeing a lot of young cipriani in the days to come for sure. england might just again become a world cup contender.

» Read the Full Post of " updates "...

3 days till St. Patty's day!

Well, here we are once again, that time of the year the shamrocks take to the lime-light (pardon the pun), when no matter who you are, where you are in the world and what creed you were born into, everyone can feel proud to be an irish!


and not surprisingly i've always had a thing for Éire, not just because it's a proud and noble rugby worshiping nation, with players whom i revere greatly, such as brian o'driscoll and ronan o'gara. more so, you simply cannot talk about ireland without throwing a "guinness" into a sentence (it would be akin to eating a plate of chicken rice without the chicken). that thick black liquid gold with the signature luscious layer of rich froth in that signature half-hourglass shaped pint glass, i say "ahoy!"



it's become more than just a brand of beer around the world, it can proudly be termed an institution in its own right. it has spawned household names such as the guinness world records, and even more strangely it's been inducted into quite a few dictionaries and made a proper noun. such is the allure of this godly good stuff.

and most of all it inspires unwavering passion, even if it's just a seemingly random bar brawl somewhere in dublin incited over a pint of guinness, or the tens of thousands of guinness wielding, rugby loving pub champions who would turn up at Landsdowne Road to watch their home team battle it out with their age old rivals - the english, scotts and the welsh.

so, here's a most sincere salute to the irish - you give the world a reason to be proud and not give a shit, even if it's just 1 day of the year.

p.s. ireland is playing england tomorrow (btw england is without wilkinson)! keep your fingers crossed. LUCK O' THE IRISH!

» Read the Full Post of " 3 days till St. Patty's day! "...

take the time

it takes...

2 seconds to close the windows in my room
30 seconds to clip my nails
.5 seconds for each clipped nail to fall to the floor
1.5 seconds to bend down and pick it up
1 second to lift up the rubbish bin lid and dispose of the nails
23 seconds to soap up and wash my hands
5 seconds to dry them
1 second to take my glasses off
.5 seconds to scoop up the contacts case from the table
1.5 seconds to open the cap
5 seconds to rinse the lens
7 seconds to put it in the eye
53 seconds to get dressed
18 seconds to put some gunk in my hair
3 seconds to lock the door
1 min to wait for the elevator
12 seconds on the ride down
4 min to walk to the traffic junction
2 min for the light to turn green
4 seconds to walk across the pedestrian crossing
14 seconds to ride the escalator up to the mrt station

i'm not going crazy, i just like to keep the time...

» Read the Full Post of " take the time "...

雨

the absolutely dreadful time of year - the biannual monsoon season. i might be wrong, but it seems like it's started, though it did come a bit early this time.


It's been pissing the entire day today (to me at least. for those who wake up before 11 am: talk to the hand or go cry about it for half an hour. for those who wake up later than 12 pm: you're a pig), and it shows no sign of easing up at this time. the sky was already dark out at around 6 o'clock, and thanks to the wonderful timing of the heaviest onslaught of the day, i got a healthy dose of soggy clothes right before i got to my tuition (i'm the tutor). and to rub salt in the wound, i've just been told by a friend from down under that he hasn't heard thunder for over 2 years now.

as if that's not enough, i have a particularly persistent pet-peeve. yup, you've guessed it, it's rainy days. i guess it's a spill-over effect from my football madness days because you see, if it rains it usually means no football. and no football makes for a very agitated and destructive me. maybe i ought to do some growing up. but come on. where's the fun in being a grown up if you can't behave like an 8-year-old.

so the entire day was effectively ruined because of the morbid rain. uninspiring and lethargic. i need to wake up to sunshine, not dark skies - that's why i go to sleep damn it.


p.s. in the ultimate irony, the chinese character in the title of this post is the word that no matter what, my student can't seem to remember... bloody hell, look around, circumspice!

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on writing

the writing disease struck again. as i woke up this morning i just had this urge to pickup my guitar. after doodling around with a bunch of nonsensical licks i made up which sound pretty damn funny by the way, i settled in that rare nostalgic mood again. that feeling is hard to come by, even harder to describe. it's like you're filled with a sense of purpose, yet you have no idea where you're going so you just let go and let it (whatever it might be) lead you somewhere else...


anyways here's the work in progress, still not quite polished yet. the first verse as of now anyhow:

It's a wayward journey
that has no end
We hitch a ride from where-
ever we can
The winding road - oh
seems endless ahead
Sanctuary for the
homeless man
Sanctity to a
helpless friend

i don't have a name for this song yet, but i have this feverish desire to call it endless road, like the tommy emannuel album of the same name. oh well, maybe something else... i'm open to suggestions as always.

anyways i realised i haven't posted any of my songs before, so here is the last one that i worked on called Take Me Away

There are places in my memories
where things('ve) gone astray
Scorning the silver lining
beginning to lose my faiths
I ain't got no future, child
ain't gone the mile
How I wish you were here
to take me away

Stuck in that dreamy haze
the day of days
Walkin down fate's aisles
with a frown on my face
Images of my tender years
flashes by my hazel eyes
I stand alone, hoping
you'd take me away

I hear the boat a-coming
has the captain lost his way
He ain't got no bearing
that life beckons of him
Is it paradise city
or that folsom prison place
So have you stopped by
to take me away

There's no obvious chorus in this song and that's the way i intended it to be, well maybe the last line take me away from every verse. anyhow it's a novice attempt, not quite finished yet. i think it begs for a killer outro or something, still to me it sounds pretty good as is.

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lions for lambs

sure, a handful of movies have touched on the theme of the american war on terror, and politics, but none did so as directly and with such candor. neither is this one a call for anti-war sentiments in essence, because that's not the message it sends out. robert redford did a good job in threading the stories and intertwining them in a cause-and-effect sort of way reminiscent of crash and (maybe a little bit) babel but still made it look refreshing, mostly through snippets and flashbacks that slowly lead the audience to the subtle connections, not what you'd usually expect from a stereotypical hollywood flick of this nature. too bad it didn't do too well in the box office, i guess people are either all apathetic about the political landscape or too disillusioned to give a damn. either way it's their loss.


the characters and events may be fictional, but the issues at heart and the big pictures aren't. redford, tom cruise and meryl streep all did an incredible job in presenting the debate about the war (with a hint of over-acting from tom cruise), albeit being quite 'dry' at times which may annoy certain individuals who see it as 'for the sake of the argument'. it doesn't necessarily contain the action/suspense you'd expect from a hollywood production, but what it lacked in fanfare it made up in depth of characters. but somehow the plot makes you feel that it just maybe underutilized the characters by restricting the scale of the plot and could have done more with them, because the whole thing seemed just a tad like a glorified high school debate.

nevertheless, the moment for me came when the political science professor was in the restaurant having a discussion with two of his most gifted students about their decisions to go to war in afganistan in an effort to "do something now". and in reply to their justification that they could "still go to grad school and do greather things when they come back", the prof simply said "if ". that was it for me. that simple one-syllable word is in my opinion THE most powerful thing spoken in the entire film.

sometimes there is just so much more in the things that were left unsaid.


oh and by the way: the title is from a german general’s world war I observation of english soldiers bravely sacrificing themselves by the tens of thousands, which redford solemnly quotes to the unengaged student at the climax of his argument: “Never have I seen such lions led by such lambs”.

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a micro photo-journey

after rugby (coaching) i waited around to pass some stuff to a friend. and right then and there i decided i couldn't possibly go to the dinner gathering and face all those inevitable, harsh stares. so i boarded the first bus that headed away from school (now my alma mater) and alighted at city hall. i had no idea where i was going, and i didn't care. it was fine with me.

after some strolling around, half heartedly looking to pick out a birthday present for a friend, i gave up. so i decided to just walk. it is actually a very soothing experience. makes you forget all your worries. and i ended up here:

i realised that i've never actually been to the city hall building during the day. it looks pretty amazing

here's another one, the sky looked pretty sweet, considering it's taken with a cam phone

the skyline

when i saw the banner i was thrilled, but upon checking my calender i realised it was today, and looking at the empty pitch in front of me, i guess it's over

oh well, an empty pitch for consolation

then i ended up at the esplanade. from this side of the river the skyline looks pretty good too

and for the second day in a row, i showed up at the mosaic music festival, i dunno, it just attracted me in a strange sort of way so i had to go back. and today's act was really sweet, an acoustic set with a female singer. didn't catch her name, but her song "desperate", and "clutch" got me hooked. it was very appropriate for the frame of mind at that instant, i felt moved

after that i continued walking to marina square, where i did a little snooping around and shopping and bought the present

and here i was walking along city hall

lady with the balloons: it just stuck out in the middle of all the dullness

view of peninsula from the bus stop

5 mins... still no bus

10 mins... still no bus

15 mins... still no sign of a single bloody bus

damn it's not my bus

finally on the bus home...

maybe this subconscious need for a little soul searching journey has a deeper underlying meaning? i wouldn't know. i'm spent, and ambivalent towards what the future may hold. why do people keep telling me i know myself best? the absolute honest truth is i don't. i don't know myself at all. i don't know what i'm capable of. i don't know the limits of my potential. i've always thought i was different, all i want to be is different. but once in a while i feel lonely being and trying to be different, so i try my hardest to fit in, only to find that i can't. is it such a sin to fail to conform? i don't know. i feel like it's just me up against the whole world. would something nice please come my way in the near future; i don't know how long this self motivation bullshit could go on. i need something good to happen to keep my sanity, because it seems that nothing i do turns out the way i want. i'm waiting on the world to change...

peace.

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