SOMEONE was a very happy birthday boy today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AIZAT! =) =) =) May the sarcasm and amazing sense of humour and bohemian-ness live in your heart forever.

P.S Muahahah now I will really know if you DO read my blog or not.

I was about to create a new post and write something poetic (it rained. I HAVE to blog when it rains. inspiration.), but remembered that I really should start keeping my "promises" about what I will blog about next. Otherwise if I ever make it as a writer and come up with a series nobody will believe that I will actually finish it.

So there.

Watched Finding Neverland (once again, sorry Pengie that you were unable to join us. Next time ok???) on...er...Thursday. Thursday is the best day to do everything. Watch movie, go k box, so on and so forth because on Thursday we are let off at TWO.

OK. So. Back to the movie. Kindly refrain from smirking as you read this post. This means you, Leong! Or I will mention how *someone* didn't think Constantine was going to be any good until we watched it and then *someone* actually liked it. *smirks*

Finding Neverland...I never thought I'd like it. It struck me as the sort of movie which won awards (I religiously avoid books and movies that win awards. 'Cos they tend to be boring and not my type. There are some exceptions, of course. The bottomline, Sharina, is that just like how others would put a movie on their "must-watch" list when they hear that it has won an award, I would put that same movie on my "must-not-watch" list.) and were boring and very abstract and I cannot understand (this is nothing at all to do with my intelligence, of course. Nope. Nada. Zilch.). But when I stared at the poster, the background sorta entranced me. It looked so fantasy-like. Which I tend to be very drawn to.

So when JY decided that she would absolutely DROP DEAD (choy!) if she did not watch it (repeated remarks from a certain lecturer about how marvellously good it is did not help either =p), I decided to be a nice and good friend (which I am) and watch it with her. Somewhere along the way Sarah decided to join us too. Sadly Pengie had to go softballing and thus had to roll away from watching the said movie.

I didn't completely understand the first part when Johnny Depp's character kept peering through the curtains at the audience to see their reaction to his play. I didn't understand why the maid had to cut out the article in the papers about his play being a flop. I didn't understand why that old woman, Mrs. Snow, told him that she enjoyed the play. Was she telling the truth?

Naturally I wasn't very happy that I couldn't understand the first scenes. But I watched on, albeit fidgeting a little. I knew it was a sad show, so I was not looking forward to the development of the plot. I hate sad shows because I feel that sometimes life is sad enough. We don't need tv shows and movies to make us feel even sadder.

I pretty much understood the rest of the movie. And I must admit that I found Johnny Depp's accent very sexy. The story unravelled. A sad, heartwrenching, ironic story with quite a few unfortunate happenings. Everything I hate in a story. And yet...the story touched me deeply and struck a chord with me because of one reason. Johnny Depp's character was a writer. He wrote because writing takes you to a whole new different world. A world which belongs to the writer. A world where everything that happens is up to the writer. A world where, most of the time, some of us go to hide from harsh realities. And I guess that is exactly what Neverland is all about. It is a sanctuary. An utopia. A place where people go to take shelter from things they don't want to face.

I write for the same reason. To escape, if you like. To create a place where everything I want in real life which cannot happen (right now or ever) can happen, and perhaps even be appreciated by others and draw them into my world. Give them the same feeling of ecstasy I got as I wrote the piece. Because imagination is that powerful.

Another reason why I ended up liking it was its theme of Believing. Johnny Depp's character told the kids that anything could happen, as long as one believed. It made me go into one of those what-if-the-world-is-really-not-what-it-seems "thought modes". I like to use this "just believe" philosophy too. Though it doesn't always work. But it provides a source of comfort, a glimmer of hope, a suggestion-a hint-that everything might just turn out to be all right.

Everyone needs a Neverland. Somewhere where things can happen just because we believe. Somewhere where we can go to dispel the pain and sorrow in life. Call it a way of escaping, or whatever you like. Everyone of us needs to escape, once in a while. Just make sure that you come back.

And that. Is why I don't hate Newswriting to the depths of hell and back.

I have like six things on my To-Do List, all of which are important. But I decided to take a...er-hem...break (though I've not really done anything much) since the weather is just so MARVELLOUS now!!!! It is breezy, the period of time just before it rains. Or maybe it's already raining, from the looks of the uneven surface of the swimming pool water downstairs. I love this kinda weather...sigh...=). Reminds me of the beach, for some reason. So I shall now stop my work for a bit before the breeze stops carressing my face and all is hot and humid once again. Did I mention that my inspiration usually comes with the rain?

And yes I have finally decided to right a happy (or happier?) post after the previous slightly (?) unhappy ones.

Now what was I going to blog about?

Everything in my life feels well...except one thing, of course. Which I will not mention since this is a happy post.

Today is, of course, family day. My mother bore no overnight grudge about me coming home at 12.15 a.m. yesterday. Which is great, and made me feel like it was a great strategy to stay home today and "spend time with my family" (read: no one asked me out. haha).

I didn't regret not going out, though. We were all having a pretty good bonding time. My youngER brother was telling my youngest brother about how Sentosa is haunted and we had a short discussion about how Russell Lee's ghost stories may not be that TRUE after all.

We went to have lunch at IKEA, but as usual there were too many people and we couldn't find any places. So off we went to Anchorpoint (note to blur queen Becky: Anchorpoint is the shopping centre which is just opposite IKEA). The food court there was full, too. Miraculously. So we went to KFC, where-fortunately-we managed to find a space. Eat eat, yum yum, fats fats, zits pop.

Then we went to walk around IKEA, themostboringplaceinSingaporeandpossiblythewholeworld, (When I mentioned this to my mother, she kindly reminded me that almost all our furniture was purchased from there and told me not to be so "ungrateful" and call IKEA boring.) to get my youngest bro a study table. Efforts were fruitless, however, and our bored expressions apparently didn't help.


Yes. I have remembered something exciting that I'd wanted to blog about.


In the car trip on the way to IKEA, my mother brought up the topic of how we should celebrate my birthday. She suggested booking a chalet for me. Which is a pretty good idea, I thought (but THE best daddy in the world said it's expensive and 21 yrs old bday is more worth celebrating and BLAH BLAH BLAH. Damn. I am not even worth a few hundred bucks to him.).

Ok but the point is. DOES ANYONE WANT TO COME? Bcos if no one will come then what is the point. Tag tag! If you're reading this and I know you, you're invited.

Warning 1: This is a very long post. Non-tech-gadget-enthusiasts may skip the first four paragraphs. But ONLY the first 4 paragraphs, if you please. Hope the post doesn't bore you guys to death. Cheerio.

Warning 2: Emotional bit right at the end. Don't laugh and don't mock, please.

As some of you might already know (I am a big show-off, which again some of you might have realised) I got my iPod shuffle! Exclamation mark because it is a big deal. It is my FIRST mp3 player and I am now a member of the cool iPod owners family. Yes. I'm quite happy with it. Although I've seen lots of people frolicking around with it. Just now as I was walking home I saw this man on the bench. I saw his earphones, and I recognised the trademark white iPod earphones. Then I saw a Shuffle in his hand. SIGH. He's middle-age. And the most awkward thing (to me) was that I was proudly wearing my own Shuffle on the stupid lanyard thing (ok I admit that it looks stupid and it has the "I CAME FOC" look. However hard I may try to hide the fact that I actually am not 100% satisfied with the lanyard.). So he looked at me and I looked at him. Both of us had a bemused expression on our faces. OH WELL.

As I said, I am quite happy with my new gadget la. Just that it has very limited functions. But I am quite unhappy with iTunes, the programme similar to Windows Media Player that I have to use to upload songs into the iPod. I haven't found out a way to rename the song titles. Maybe there isn't. And maybe I'm too used to the Windows Media Player, but I find that the iTunes has several missing features that enable it to be as easy to use as WMP.

Last night, immediately after I got home from watching Finding Neverland (review of that later, maybe.), I started installing the iTunes. It took forever to find all the mp3 and wav files in my computer (understandably, I guess, since I have 320 in my windows media library). In the end I had to leave my laptop on, running on battery while I went to sleep because it still hadn't finished converting all my songs. Then this morning I was almost late because I was trying to upload the songs into my Shuffle. Too excited to use it.

In case some of you do not know how the Shuffle looks like, I shall hereby provide a picture (as Jawei has requested). I will scold you first, though. Where have you been living all this while? Sua gu =p.



-End of part of post by May the Computer Geek-

-May as the "semi-normal" May starts writing-

My father is listening to blasting Summer Nights from Grease. A-R-G-H. OF ALL THE SONGS. He just HAD to listen to the one from the stupid film we did a project on for Film Appreciation. Which my group has watched TWICE. And I am sick of the songs.

Where was I. Oh yes. Today's happenings.

Erm. Oh ya. I shall start from the beginning of the day then. Sorry I have problems with telling events in a chronological order. I narrate them as I remember them.

So I woke up, washed up, fiddled around with my laptop and my Shuffle until I finally got songs added inside, then legged it to the bus stop. Had to take the MRT as it was already late .

IVP in the morning as usual. Had a written test. Hope to get an A. The lecturer expects me to, after knowing that I skipped her class last week because of (Instructions to Becky: Pls read the following words out or you will never get it even if you re-read the sentence 146,000 times.)DOUBLE-U Pee. =p Finished the test ahead of time. JY asked me to accompany her to the restroom, but she didn't really want to go and just wanted to get out of the cold classroom. So we decided to go and disturb our favourite lecturer. Econs, lunch break flew by.

At 1 pm 12 of us classmates marched to the IDEAs centre (which has lots of comfy Crumpler beanbags. Sadly dozing off is prohibited there.) for a discussion about Finding Mr. Right and Being Ms. Right. Cheesy as the topic sounds, I do believe I have walked away with quite interesting and useful knowledge about the concept of "self-giving" in relationships. It basically means going the extra mile to do stuff for people you care about. I do believe I do quite a lot of this. And it did put me in quite a "self-giving" mood.

We got a free nasi lemak lunch. With like only 1 ingredient: egg. The rice was a bit too salty for my liking. But it's still quite nice I guess. Everyone bought nuggets and stuff to "top up the ingredients". Point is it's free. Why are we so budget? Because there's a hell lot of March babies in our class.

Fast forward to IPRA. Allow me to SIGH here. I still have no idea what the module is all about. Fast forward to after IPRA. Followed JY to the Polycentre where the SP Baddy Open was being held. She felt too awkward having to inform our "fave" classmate of the coming econs ca and give her the revision questions. So I decided to be "self-giving" and accompany her there. Of course, along the way, somehow I ended up having to give her the worksheet and inform her of the CA. Then JY's badminton club friend jokingly asked me to help her refill her water bottle since I was so "free". To their amusement I really did. Anything to help. Felt rather exploited, though. Bah, darn hormones.

So that was it-my day today. Surprisingly, the long and lonely bus ride home I'd expected wasn't as lonely (it was just as long-1 hr) because somehow I managed to go from the brink of tears as I exited the Polycentre (PMS+other factors) to an okay mood by the time I got on the bus.

One last thing: Now I shall explain the title of this post. Or rather, relate the event that caused it. I told my mother that I'd bought the Shuffle this morning. She offered to give me $50 so that my ang bao money wouldn't be exhausted so fast and she said she'd talk to my father and see if he would chip in $50 too. But guess what. When I got home and my mother brought up the topic, my father said to her "You're spoiling her." and my mother called him stingy. Oh well. Sigh sigh. Nevermind. At least I have the best mother in the world. Daddy has to work a bit harder for his votes, though.

Almost every night (when I remember) I give Chuchino a kiss on the nose for being my best furry friend, my most patient companion on those long lonely nights when it would just let my tears wet its fur. Call it my imaginary friend, laugh at its name, call me escapist and childish or whatever, but I don't care. It's as good as a pet to me. It's my only comfort when all is dark and quiet. Now if I could only convince my mother not to throw it away the next time it gets dirty...why must you have white fur, Chuchino?

Sigh. Okay-day today, but got into a crappily bad mood a few times. WP was a constant stream of uproarious laughter and fun-as usual-and we lunched at KFC. I still like the Shrooms burger. Though I've heard that chicken patties aren't exactly made up of the most PREMIUM chicken. I heard that they just cram everything (yes all the chicken parts) into some mixer or sth and ta daa! Out comes "chicken paste" and that's how you get your chicken patties. But the patty in the Shrooms burger I ate today was pretty crispy. So I shall just ignore the disgusting details involved in its production.

By the time we were having our project discussion during DVPA, however, I had already started frowning. Frown frown frown, furrow your brows. Frowning face. Our favourite lecturer saved the day, though. She suddenly popped into the Digital Media Studio and handed my grp a diskette, saying that it's a "present for May". Oh yeppedee and yeppeday. Though half of me felt like killing her, the "present" really cheered me up. =) So thanks, you-know-who-you-are!


When we were having lunch, Flora said "It's usually the people you love most that hurt you the most". She was referring to BGR, but I think it applies to friends too. Sigh.

P.S: My "crappily bad moods" were caused by more than pms.

Woke up at 11.30 am today, still feeling v sleepy. As if I'd only slept for 7 hrs. What sleep deprivation for a whole week does to a person...

Went to Swensen's for lunch. Had a really good time there. Did some mother-daughter bonding by talking abt celebrating her birthday (i mentioned that our sch hols start before her bday) and just showing care and concern and displaying affection. She seemed really happy. Simple things in life. A simple lunch. Simple happiness. She told me that she'd buy an mp3 player for me if she won the lottery. She was more confident about winning it this time round as she'd met the God of Fortune (don't ask me. I dunno either) yest when she was out shopping and he told her she'd have luck.

After that, we came back home and I played Gunbound a bit before going to sleep for about half an hour. Bathed and went to my 4th aunt's (the one who made the scrumpeelicious cookies)house to have a family-gathering-cum-dinner. My aunt told me that my little cousin (their only child. i dunno how old she is...maybe primary one or something. Or K2.) said "I am sad. They hurt my feelings." when my aunt told her that her cousins (that means me and ro and everyone) were coming for dinner.

My aunt asked her why. She said "Nobody played with me on New Year's Eve. I'm so hurt." Wow. She's usually really quiet but when she speaks...it's so...impactful i guess. I still remember the time when she said "Don't say my mother is fat ok." to someone. My reaction when my aunt told me that we'd "hurt her feelings" was "*gasp* I have sinned.". Shit man. Sarcasm has become my reflex. But I didn't really mean it sarcastically. I don't think she detected my sarcasm anyway.

Ro! We must play wif her next time and not "hurt her feelings"! I dunno what to do with young kids la. Just not good wif them. Oh well.

And guess what we had for dinner. STEAMBOAT. They just love having steamboat on new year and just about every other occasion. Oh well. At least the soup was decent and I was pretty filled up. Was kinda looking forward to tasting my aunt's v gd cooking, though.

And as usual, about the only conversation topic between me and all the female adults there was (drumroll) my cho complexion. Shall I say any further?

It's really windy at their place. It's at Bukit Batok. I almost froze in my sleeveless tank top. I chatted a bit wif Ro about wonderful sec 4 life.

Then we left.

Thus ends an exciting day.

Sorry for not blogging for such a long time (for those who have missed me/my posts :p). Guess what I've been busy with. Ding ding! Correct. WP.

The WP (or Web Publishing, a module in which we learn how to create websites) individual project was due today. I finished the day before yesterday. Yesterday, I skipped IPRA and went to Flora's place to help her wif her WP. She actually did quite a lot on her own. Hahaha. Quite proud of her. Finished at around 3.30 pm. I tried to break free from my habit of showing pple how to do stuff instead of teaching them as much as possible. So Flora did everything on her own and I just guided her from time to time. Had a sense of achievement.

After that I rushed back to SP to be on time for Sabby's performance at the Talentime finals. It was breathtaking and mindblowing as expected. After watching the second group's performance under the Band category, Jia Ying and I decided to make a move first as she needed help with her WP (she decided that the best way to get it was to stay over at my place).

I shall digress a little now and say CONGRATS SABBY U WON!!!!!!! =) We're so proud of you and so proud to be ur friend.

Also there was a very nice song that a band consisting of pple from the 01 class performed. It's stuck in my head and I'm dying to hear it again.

Ok back to the main topic. I decided to take the MRT as JY has problems with bus rides. We had Piggy and Mei Hui for company until we reached City Hall. Had a pretty interesting and fun conversation with them. Then our butts rot away on the MRT seats until we reached the bright yellow (eeew) Toa Payoh MRT station. JY felt like eating fast food, so we popped into MOS burger. After popping out of there, we took a bus to my home.

Finally reached home at ard 9.45 pm. I let JY acquaint herself with my lappy while I went off to bathe. And so the web publishing began. JY kept asking me to go and sleep first and I finally decided to heed her advice at around 2 am. I didn't dare to fall asleep as I was scared that she wouldn't be able to wake me up if she encountered any problems. But I still drifted in and out of sleep for abt an hour. The few minutes that passed each time I dozed off felt like many hours. She was done at about four am. But the navigation bar links for the popup menus of 4 of her websites didn't work. We got pek cek after trying to solve the problem after a while and decided to go to sleep.

You know how sometimes when you're really really tired, you just can't get to sleep? That happened to us. JY wasn't used to sleeping in a "new" environment, too, I guess. So we talked for a bit and started to keep stating the obvious by asking questions. E.G. Guess what happens when we're really tired but can't sleep?

My parents tried to wake us up at 6 am but they couldn't open my room door (because my mattress was blocking it, my room being too small for 2 mattresses) so it was mission failed. We both roused at 8.15 am thanks to JY's screeching hp alarm. So we decided not to go for the first lesson of the day. We managed to solve the problem on her webpages, and set off for school. Took the MRT AGAIN. But I don't really mind taking the MRT in the morning as the view is really quite nice in the parts when the train is not in a tunnel. I hate the fare they make us poly students pay, though. JC students the same age as most of us pay less than half the price. Transitlink is a big bully to poly students.

And for the rest of the day we both kept complaining abt how tired we were and kept up the Guess who or Guess what stating-the-obvious "questions". Lack of sleep can be sooo torturous. Amazingly I didn't fall asleep in neither the econs lecture OR the IPRA lecture. Did the GEMs presentation for our group (due next mon. aren't our lives just FILLED with excitement.). After school, the both of us had a sudden urge to go K Boxing, and so we did.

By the time we reached there, it was already 4.30, so there wasn't much time. We had fun anyway. Guess who sang One Night in Beijing =p. At around 7 pm Ken, our DMC coursemate, came into our room and told us that we had to leave after the current song finished. Then he realised that it was us, so he said "Oh..forget it then." And he said he'd try to let us stay a while longer because usually patrons paying the student prices were supposed to leave their rooms by 7 pm. We stayed till 8, and decided not to get Ken into any possible trouble and leave. Thanks Ken.

Went home, heated up dinner in the microwave and ate it. Started to feel lonely and pek cek. I liked having JY around yesterday, even though we were slogging over WP, because at least I had company. It's not like my house is very empty (I have 2 bros), but I dunno y. I guess some of us just tend to feel lonely sometimes. And the knowledge that someone else is in the room accompanying you is just plain comforting on such occasions. No matter what the occasion might be. And how irritating it may be to be woken up from time to time at truly unearthly hours and asked questions about WP. Hahaha. But nevermind. What's important is that she managed to finish her project.

I shall attempt to go to sleep soon. Too sad to attempt it just now. Not that I'm much happier now, but I'm really really tired.

Parting shot: For those who are absolutely dying to know but are too paiseh to ask or I just haven't got round to telling, this is all I'll divulge about what happened on Monday-We had fun, and nothing extraordinary happened. You are welcome to come up with your own definitions for "extraordinary". ;D

Help! I am so bored but I have so much work to do. My mother is cooking porridge for lunch, which I hate, and my father is playing some sort of dumb cd which has a lot of dumb sounds like things breaking. And now it's the plane taking off. G-E-E-Z. AND IT IS NOT VERY SOFT. GOD DAMN IT WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM. Great, and now it has started raining. Just when I need to return my library books, which I just found out are 3 days overdue. And when I feel like laying eyes on the iPod shuffle. Sux. My brothers have the flu and I can't stop sneezing. I have decided that I cannot take care of sick people. I totally do not know how to do it and will just start acting weird.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooo. Wanted to blog about yesterday and friday, but don't have the mood now. Maybe later.

Ah....what a relatively (pun intended) eventful day =D. But first things first...the collection.

No. of ang baos: 18

$$: $196

I dunno about you, but that's pretty impressive to me. I think it's quite definitely more than last yr. Plus yesterday's collection...the total comes to....*drumroll* $280!!! Don't think I've come this close to collecting $300 in a few years. Don't be jealous la, Ro.

I don't foresee getting any more red packets tomorrow, but I am satisfied anyway so YAY!!!

Now, more about the happenings. It's not like me to emphasize so much on money anyway =p. But today's a rare occasion. So please forgive me.

I woke up at 9.30 am (didn't really feel like waking up so early, but it IS new year and for once nobody was trying to wake me up so I was in a good mood) and smiled around the house. Switched on the computer, talked to some pals, then shimmied off to bathe and put on my new clothes.

Oh yes. Where was I...*scrolls up* Oh yes. After putting on my new clothes I then went to style my hair. I'm the sort who will plant herself in front of the mirror, bottle of wax and comb in hands and not move until I have got my hair exactly the way I want it. Or until impatient family members drag me away. Whichever happens first.

And my 2nd brother was wearing formal clothes, with a Superman tank top inside his red checkered formal shirt. And a gold necklace. He looked like an ah long. Hahaha. And my youngest bro, as usual, just had to gel his hair into the nerd hairstyle.

Yes. And then we drove off to my maternal grandmother's house. Halfway through my mother realised that we'd forgotten the oranges. So off we went back to get it. And arrived at gran's late. Sat around, collected ang baos, watched tv, ate lunch. Didn't really get the chance to talk to my cousins this time round, as they arrived quite late also. And we didn't stay for very long.

After that we went to my paternal grandmother's house. With some sms-sending, Ro and I finally managed to synchronise our arrivals there so that we could meet. I ate a lot of snacks there, and did more slacking around. Then Ro's family and mine decided to go visiting together for the rest of the day. Ro asked me to sit in their car. So I did. We had fun, Ro, her brother and I, singing to Jay's songs in the car. Hahaha.

The next venue was our late great grandmother's place. Usually there're a lot of people there, but this year there weren't. I think there were only two families there, aside from the residing families (by the way this place has two apartments next to each other which both belongs to my relatives. my maternal grandmother's place is also next to my cousins' house). My lecturer aunt was there, too. She's from the School of Infocomm, heading the Creative Media Design course. She teaches CD too. Funny how I only saw her once before, on the very first day of school. So she talked to me and asked a lot of questions about my course. She even asked for my full name so that she could check me up on the database. Oh yay. She told me that there's another relative who's also in the school of business. And she made me meet him. I just smiled at him and went back inside (he was outside wearing his shoes, preparing to leave).

We went to someplace near (or in, I dunno) Choa Chu Kang. Coincidentally, we have two families who live just two floors away from each other in that block, too. I believe they are brothers. I guess living together with your relatives was pretty popular in the last generation. Or last last generation. It was here where I decided to try and make conversation with the adults since this family has kids who are always nowhere to be found or "hiding" inside their rooms and we always stay in this place for a long long long time. And they will always try to make us stay for dinner and make spring rolls for us (which are really nice, according to my parents. i dun like spring rolls.). Very hospitalising family. So then my lecturer aunt also arrived and I decided to ask her about what she teaches and stuff. She told me that the course she teaches is like IDEAs except expanded and thus the students don't take IDEAs. Just imagine, guys! IDEAs for 3 whole years, except worse! God. And to think I was considering that course.

I also listened to my mother talk to the old lady in the house (I don't know what her title is in English) and found their conversation rather interesting. My lecturer aunt was telling the old lady about how the former's mother's condition was improving by leaps and bounds (she got a stroke a few years ago) after she took this bottle of chinese medicine. So my mother, lecturer aunt, and the old lady was discussing about how that's very good but the medicine might have unknown side effects.

Later my mum started talking to another lady who was a resident of the house and it was then that I realised that she was a hairdresser. I never knew despite coming to her house every year. And she remembers that I used to have long hair last year and asked if I'd cut it off. Heck, she even remembered that Ro's bro had golden hair last year (in conjunction with the Monkey year, he'd said). I think that's quite amazing, considering that we basically only meet once a year. She looks quite young and pretty too, considering that she has three sons, and their ages are close to that of me and my brothers.

So that's all we did today. Went to 4 places. Hahaha. Finished at about 5.40 pm. Which is very early. But today we didn't stay as long as we usually did in all the places. Then we went for dinner at the Windsor hotel. I had fish and chips.

Managed to generally avoid hearing relatives comments about how I've grown and the like. I realised that they probably said that as a conversation starter because they have nothing else to say or something. But a lot of the female adults kept suggesting how to improve my complexion, which is an oh-so-subtle way of telling me it sucks. Which I know. I have a pizza for a face what. But I really do appreciate their concern and the tips they offered. It's just that I don't like to talk about it.

My dad was in that i-am-so-funny mood all day, which means he would keep trying to be funny and cracking really lame jokes. Haha. Nevermind it IS chinese new year and some of his jokes are rather amusing. At the hotel where we had our dinner, there was a television and it was showing the news. Specifically the part about how people were tripping over each other to go and stick their joss stick in the temple. So my father said maybe they should have a remote controlled bow and arrow to shoot the joss stick into the...joss sticker(?). Please laugh. He's my father. Give face.

Hehe. Ok I bet you're getting impatient reading this super long post already. Thanks for reading to the end.


P.S Sorry for the unnecessary words in this post which just served to lengthen it. Hahaha.

No. of Angbaos collected as yet: 4

$ collected at the time of this report: $118

Not bad, if I do say so myself. I haven't even officially started house-visiting ;) . Happy new year everyone!

P.S My father packed his microphones in a little kit and says he is going to bring it to every house today and sing karaoke there instead of sitting around and stoning. He is also considering bringing his own karaoke cds. Heaven help us.

=D Just came back from reunion dinner. Had...(and you would never have guessed it) steamboat! There was chicken curry (and more importantly, curry potatoes!) this time though...so I enjoyed it more. Even had two bowls of rice, which I don't usually have at other people's houses.

After dinner we slacked around and watched tv. There was this movie on channel 8 which was all about mahjong. And since I still don't know how to play mahjong (all I learnt from watching my friends play for 2 days straight at a chalet last year was what "pung" "gang" and "mahjong" meant), I basically just stoned there until the movie ended and it was time to go home. But it wasn't so bad...cos I got Ro for company =) .

Halfway through the movie all the "kids" and my 3rd aunt disappeared in the room to play Blackjack. Gambling with 10-cent coins. Everybody won money except my 3rd aunt, hahaha and she was real happy despite that, laughing her trademark laugh that is so distinctive...so i-don't-care-what-you-think-i-shall-just-throw-my-head-back-and-laugh...so...her. I love my aunt =D . Ro won the most money ($2.10). She has spiky hair like me. This is proof that spiky, pineapple-like hair is AUSPICIOUS. And to style our hair requires mastery of the ancient art of grass arrangement.

Talking about aunts, my 4th aunt gave all of us her homemade cookies (which are really really addictive, btw) and Ro's mother gave us red packets. Cheers to my aunts.

Ro's brother had to join us later in the evening because he had military duty at the Istana. He just looks more mature and less like the kid in him everytime i see him. And his hair is getting uglier. But nevermind, he is still the cousin I grew up with.

My youngest bro got teased because he said the abalone looked like fish cake, which I thought was true. Maybe I will mock him about how he injured his arm less, since he's so pitiful.

Oh and we had more tang yuan (I think this year we eat tang yuan 3 times alr) and I was lucky enough to get the peanut ones instead of the black sesame ones. Yummy.

Came back, and I switched on the living room tv to watch the cny countdown show. After my 2nd brother finished bathing (yeah he decided to bathe at 10 pm. when he'd already bathed in the afternoon.) he said he wanted to watch mr bean cartoon vcd (only the living room has a vcd player), so i had to clear off. Sometimes I do wonder who's the eldest here, him or me. But nevermind, I shall let it pass since my youngest bro went to his room and switched on the tv and changed to channel 8 just for me.

In the end they decided not to watch because they thought my father was going to use the vcd player to play his cds (to blast more hokkien cny songs, no doubt), when actually he was just removing his cd from the player. Hahaha irrelevant and anti-climax, I know.

So now I'm watching the cny countdown show with my youngest bro. Bryan Wong and Kym Ng seem to be talking in weird Chinese accents. Or maybe it is just me. Oh well all's well since it is CHINESE NEW YEAR! My father gave us our red packets when we got home (thankfully he didn't make us kneel like he sometimes does) and my brothers helpfully exclaimed that it contains a "big blue" (chua family speak for $50). Which is a lot for me, I don't know about u guys. I haven't opened mine.

I shall now attempt to come up with logical CNY resolutions.

1. Learn to love my brothers equally and stop being biased (note to self: openly showing my favour for Ken isn't going to make my parents be less biased towards Everett. thus it is NOT helping to attain any form of balance.)
2. Try to do projects and assignments with more zest
3. Build stronger friendships
4. Save more $$
5. Find more time to catch up on reading
6. Eat fast food no more than once per week.
7. Self-actualisation and self-improvement
8. Read The Straits Times at least ONCE a week (the funnies, tv schedules, Life! section NOT COUNTED).

There! 8 resolutions. Auspicious number ^_^. HAPPY CNY everyone! I look forward to visiting relatives, collecting red packets and watching all the countdown shows from Taiwan.

Just got back from watching Constantine. It wasn't bad, but I can't decide whether the movie was actually trying to indirectly promote Christianity or something. Oh well. I shan't think too much and just say it was good. =D Very exciting and cool and everything...though it does make one feel quite cynical. Tomorrow's new year! Can't wait.

Came up with a very ugly first attempt at designing the dmc logo for web publishing, and got distracted thereafter. Thus created a new logo for my blog. Hope you guys find it cute.

In other news I have got a new comforter cover.



Chuchino: I love it!



In other other news my "prayer" was answered and my mother bought bak kwa at $35. YAY!

Bak kwa costs $38 a kg now. Can buy a bag lor. And a nice one at that. Can't *someone* do something to decrease the price so that my family can have bak kwa in our house for the first time in a few years? *winks at Pingster*

To-Do List

1. Spring-clean room!!
2. Reply letter!
3. Cut nails
4. Do WP individual project (by the way Pingster has extended ze deadline to Friday, 5 pm)
5. Do NW soft news article
6. Do IVP 300-400 word essay (Activity 2-6, page 2-5)
7. ECONS QN SUMMARY
8. Econs tutorial
9. Return books

"Even I'm satisfied with my new uncluttered home!" =D

After much deliberation, I decided to put the mood thing on my blog as it is too temptingly cute. I didn't want to put it because it is very common. But I decided that I can never be as bohemian as Aizat and have a comments box thingy instead of a tagboard. Big difference, eh? =p So tadaaa! I have a common unkymoods icon now.

Stop complaining about the bright colors on my blog. They are happy and festive colors. And besides, I can't think of any other colors that can successfully emulate the chinese new year atmostphere. So there. Just bear with it until CNY is over and yours truly gets her ass up to change it.

Timo thinks I use the word "ass" too much. Hahahaha. Do I really?

Replies to Tags

Sabby: No it is NOT cute to hear a combination of drilling, beijing opera singers singing and hokkien chinese new year songs all at the same time.

Becky: MY BLOG DOES NOT LOOK LIKE A MACDONALD WEBBIE. No I was asked to do a slightly more important job than bringing pple up the bus for open house. I was asked to PHOTOGRAPH people and give it to them as souvenirs. The only way in which my polly pocket bag would earn me more angbao money would be if my relatives thought I was an overgrown primary school student. I dunno about you, but I think my angbao money just gets less and less as I grow older. And anyway the bag has got quite dirty already. Ah du is a luxury compared to weird hokkien songs sung by singers from the Medieval times. Dun say lor my parents LOVE Rong Shu Xia. And yes I DO prefer cai shen dao. And da di hui chun. At least they put me in the cny mood.

Flo: I din do anything to the music leh. Magic! Hahaha I just THOUGHT about how to make the music work but didn't come up with any solutions.

You know who (Lord Voldemort): Why thank you. Though I'm sure u're being sarcastic. That's sweet anyway. Hahhaha. And once again I implore what is wrong with having stylish hair?!

Rowena: It would be a good way to get blind as compared to something like, u know, getting stabbed in the eye or something ^_^.


Woke up at 10.40 am NATURALLY. Haven't woken up naturally (i.e and not being forced to wake up by certain shouting by certain members of my family) in a long time. Then I started thinking about how I should spend the whole of today. My mum called to ask Ken to go downstairs and help carry up stuff (my parents went new year shopping again). She thought I was still asleep, or she'd have asked me. So Ken went down and came up shortly after, saying they hadn't arrived yet and he'd gotten impatient. Thus I decided to save the morning by going down. And then it was Macdonald's breakfast for all three of us kids. I like Egg McMuffin. And hash browns. Had a pancake offered by Ken (he was not really being nice. he'd wanted big breakfast.)

After brunch I decided to spring-clean my room. I tidied up the lower shelf of my table, wiped it and tidied up my cd/vcd/dvd collection on my bookshelf. I put up all the posters that I'd taken down before my room was painted, and added two new ones. I blu-tacked 2 postcards to my bookshelf for decorative purposes. I already tidied my bookshelf after my room was painted. So I was quite satisfied that my table was neat again (albeit only for a short time. I bet it'll be messy again in less than a week.) and I'd taken only 2 hrs to do it.

So I went online and told everyone I'd finished spring cleaning (everyone=flora, becky and sabby, who happened to be online then). Then Flora HAD to remind me that spring cleaning also includes cleaning other furniture in one's room like the cupboard. I'd clean forgotten about that. And Becky said if what I'd done was called spring-cleaning, she "spring-cleans" everyday. Thus I became a discouraged worker and was classified as "unemployed" by the government in Economics.

Bah I am so lazy to go clean my cupboard and the top shelf of my table. Have to take down the stuff, wipe, double wipe, wash the cloth, and put back the things again. By which time I would probably have forgotten where I'd put what. I am also sitting on my bed, in plain view of the dust on the side of my table. Bah. I am so not cut out to be a housewife. Hate chores.

Think I'll have to clean the cupboard and table later. (I think it's quite pointless to clean the chair and the bed, so I'll leave those out. I alr cleaned the bookshelf after the room was painted.) Before my mother shouts at me to remind me of what I've done for the house this spring cleaning (i.e nothing). I think mothers' shouts and nags are the most powerful energy source. They just have to shout/nag and we will start to get stuff done.

As if the ongoing construction work (the v noisy but not as noisy as piling kind) at the space which my window faces is not enough, my father has decided to start blast hokkien CNY songs on the stereo to compete with the noise. The next thing I know, he'll be starting to sing Karaoke. And my mother is watching Beijing Opera to compete with my father.

To-Do List

1. Spring-clean room!!
2. Reply letter!
3. New year cards! (but i think no time alr)
4. Cut nails
5. Do WP individual project (by the way Pingster has extended ze deadline to Friday, 5 pm)
6. Return books
7. Subtly bring up subject to dad about him buying a pair of Levi's for himself (and none for me). I saw a Levi's Red Tab jeans tag in the dustbin in his room. Desired result: a pair of Levi's for meeee at last =D
8. Buy new bag (hopefully parents will forget that I just bought the Polly Pocket bag not long ago. and realised that i couldn't possibly bring that bag on new year as it looks too childish and I might see a lot of primary school girls carrying it)

Funny how I always forget half of what I want to blog by the time I sign in to blogger.

Anyway, today Sarah, Timo and I went to school to help in the Open House. We followed a group of teachers from secondary schools, ITEs and so on as they toured the School of Business (which is our faculty). I reached the taxi stand (our regular meeting place) at 8.10 am as a) Sarah would kill me if I were late as b) the teacher-in-charge is quite strict about punctuality. We were supposed to report to the foyer at 8.40 am. Sarah arrived at around 8.25 am, and so did Timo. So we walked into school, grabbed some quick brekkie (I had a chocolate twist, I believe it is called, from the snack stall. Nice and filling.). As we were climbing down the stairs to the foyer, Sarah said she thought she saw Ms Nga. But actually she saw Ms Kwa. Then we realised that both of them were there. Hahahha they look alike =p. Had a little chat (and as usual they HAD to bring up the topic about my hair. I believe Ms Nga's favourite question to me is "What happened to your hair?"). Teehee. Then the lecturer-in-charge arrived, and so did Mrs Pansy Tan.

First stop was the Digital Media Studio. We followed them into the Learning Place (which is where all the Macintoshes are and we have our lectures and do some of our projects and stuff), where they showed us a video about the course. Wonder why Pingster chose 04 to star in the video and not us =( .

Then it was on to The Floor for half of them (which is something like a studio where we can do indoor filming) and the Control Suite for the other half (where the director sits and directs whatever programme is going on in The Floor). Sarah got to do the wind-up cue at Mr Low when the other group on the Floor had finished their little activity and Mr Low was still excitedly introducing the equipment in the Control Suite to the group. Mr Low said he was proud of Sarah for putting his teaching into use. And of course Sarah brought up the topic of giving her participation marks a little boost from B+ to A.

Note to self: Try to balance up the amount of sensible things I say during lessons and the amount of redundant comments/jokes/sarcastic remarks I make in class.

Then the other group came in and we listened to Mr Low's little "supplementary DVPA lecture" again.

After that the teachers proceeded to one of the tutorial rooms to play a game called Accountpoly (don't ask. I dunno either.). 40 minutes later was refreshments time. Then on to the Retail Place (where a lot of Samsung products are sold at a slightly lower price than outside). Lastly, they were brought into another tutorial room to complete feedback forms.

Our duties were completed then. But Sarah decided for me that I will go with her to the Spinnovex to show the teachers the place where we were helping out at on Thursday. But by the time we finally got in (after holding the door for a stream of people while waiting for all the teachers to get in), the group of teachers were scattered everywhere anyway. So we spent a grand total of 5 seconds inside the Spinnovex air-conditioned tent. I went home.

It's such a hot day. It was hot in the bus even though the air conditioners were working. I slept throughout the whole journey (almost). Came back, bathed, and here I am now.

Had our DVPA directing test today. Was quite stressful, cos I was the interviewer 4 times, cameraman twice and floor manager once. Aizat and Jia Ying were damn funny. Aizat sang Unbreak my Heart and Phantom of the Opera. Jia Ying sang ONE NIGHT IN BEIJING (YES with the TWO voices) and some spice girls song. Anyway I think I did okay except for forgetting to fade the lights and play the music at the end. And not cutting the cameras for a few seconds as I did a time check. And lagging a bit in the beginning in showing the correct camera filming the person who is talking at that time.

SPECIAL THANKS to my Production Crew for a Great Job Done:

• Becky-Interviewer (for exceptional hosting skills)
• Sharina-Guest (for singing so well and taking time to practice. and not minding being Gurmit)
• Sarah-Floor Manager (for being my darling)
• Flora-Sound man (for being my darling)
• Jasmine-Vision mixer (for not getting irritated that i cut every few seconds)
• Jia Ying-Camera 1 (thanks for giving the 30 second cue too)
• Sabarina-Camera 2 (I told u u'd do fine =p)

Couldn't have done it without you guys. Thanks so much! =D

You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you awy from this world So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all... But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life. Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

My mother's mad at me because I was late 3 minutes in going downstairs to help her carry the stuff she bought for New Year, (I was watching television) and because I was too tired to do the dishes for her. Sometimes I feel that the only reason she needs me around is to help her carry things when Ken is not around (which is virtually all the time) and help her babysit Everett since they don't trust Ken.

Somebody's nick says "Learn how to live, Learn how to live alone."

I need to print out my DVPA scripts but can't because my father is BLASTING oldies on the computer. Great, that would totally improve my mother's mood. NOT. And this also means that I have to rush like hell to get the scripts printed out tomorrow morning.

Despite having his arm in a bloody cast Everett still can play the computer, and kill monsters or whatever on his Gameboy. Amazing.

My mother never ate the muah chee I bought for her. I bet she's going to give it to my brothers or my father or something. When I bought it specially for her.

Matters of the heart suck at the moment.

All this may sound trivial, but I can cry. I hate it when my problems mount.

Screw the world.