I stand at my window and watch. A few seconds is all it takes. Inspiration visits.

I watch night turn into day as lightning flashes try their hands at being the Sun for split seconds.

Maybe one day I will find myself once again watching this natural phenomenon that enthralls me so and when my eyes leave it, inspiration will come again. Maybe this time, for a novel. Who knows?

Yet again, my tranquiliser has come in the form of a storm.

Tonight, the raindrops will be my lullaby.

Ah yes. Life is full of hope again. Good night world.

I cannot remember who I lent my Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to. Or if I even lent it to anyone. Maybe it's just lying around the house somewhere, waiting to be found. Dang. Goldfish memory. Anyway, if I did lend it to someone and you remember who I lent it to (for some reason) or you are the 'borrower', please inform me as I really am quite puzzled as to where it disappeared to. Thank you!

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Attended a wedding dinner last night. It was my first uncle's youngest son (i.e. my cousin)'s wedding. He's in his early twenties, I think. And the bride is 21. 21!!! That's not-so-long from now. Can you imagine? A certain cousin kept wondering and trying to find out if it was a er-hem marriage. Hahahaha. *winks*

So I met my cousins (the ones I'm closer to and are not years older than us) at 5 plus to go bowling. It was a huge rush, going from school to the salon in Jurong to have my hair cut, rushing back home and going to the bowling alley. But I had great fun, catching up with my cousins and playing my favourite indoor sport (yes I DO actually play sports, just that I prefer not to sweat and be in air-conditioned comfort while playing).

Had 2 games each. Everett (youngest bro) insisted that he came along, so I brought him, thinking "Oh, bother. He's just gonna push the balls into the drains and hold us all up.". Little did I know that in the time when I stopped playing bowling with my family, he had both started playing and actually got quite good at it.

Towards the end of the first game, he came alarmingly close to beating me and he would have done, had I not pictured the embarrassment I would face if I lost and he went home and blabbered about how he trounced me (which has a 100% chance of occurring. the blabbering, I mean.). Luckily, whoever up there took pity on me and I scored a strike. Whoopedeedoo and I won him by a few points. I was out of practice la ok! Of course, I had no problems beating him in the second game as he lost his beginner's luck (smirk smirk) and I think his confidence took a bit of a beating.

We shuffled off downstairs to the function room (where the wedding was being held). That place was a grassroots club, which explains why it has both a bowling alley and a function room.

And then it was shawls aplenty and lots of yam-senging with F&N orange served in wine glasses (as usual none of the waiters nor waitresses offered me red wine). My cousins and I discovered that the "wedding cake" that the bride and groom cut was fake. The knife didn't even go down properly and when it was removed, there wasn't any cream on it. Haha. The perks of sitting just beside the VIP table (i.e. right in front of the makeshift stage).

Ok, read the next post for some light-hearted wedding humour. If you've had enough of my ramblings, just click the red 'x' on the top right hand corner of this window.

I now feel quite qualified to write the following piece. Pardon me, y'all.

1. Make sure that your husband-to-be has had practice in popping champagne and will not get performance anxiety on the big day.
   
2. Do not allow any of your wedding guests to proceed to the stage, grab the mic and insist that his friends come up to the stage too before starting the toast. In fact, do not even invite any of such known characters and think to yourself "I knew it!" when it occurs. Unless the "known character" is your immediate family, in which case please get married in secret. Sister's Island might be a great place for such secret unities of holy matrimony.
   
3. Avoid playing mushy, old and generally horrible-sounding love songs, especially those containing words like "tonight I make love to you" (I'm serious. It was playing as they were walking down the red carpet.). If possible, also avoid "Love is All Around" because those who have watched Love Actually will have an instant mental image of Bill Nighy singing "Christmas is All Around" and believe me, it is not a good thing to have a roomful of wedding guests having mental images of a wrinkled old man when one is getting married.
   
4. Please, please arrange to modify the bit when the lights go off, disco music comes on and the waiters and waitresses ponce around and position themselves at each table with the first dish held high above their shoulders.
   
5. Make sure HE pays for everything. And also that all my relatives and friends are invited.
   
6. Ban people from nudging umarried relatives who are around your age and saying "When will it be your turn?"
   
7. Start. On. Time.
   
8. NO horrible photoshop effects which attempt to combine several photos into one in an ugly manner on my wedding photos.
   
9. I will get my friends (who, hopefully by then would a. still be in touch with me and b. bother to turn up for my wedding and c. have become bigshot producers) to do a nice wedding video which we can have projected on screen as we walk down the red carpet, hand in hand. Gawd, I am so romantic.
   
10. Then, when I have become a hotshot journalist, I will do a piece on my OWN wedding. Talk about narcissism.
    

All of the above are just my opinion and are in no way related to last night's wedding dinner, especially the now-married couple. =D

And thus I shall show you how my room looks like after Everett cleared it up for me-



Ok this was about a week ago, so it's ever-so-slightly more messy now, but still, you know, neater. Than usual.

My dad just bought a new amplifier (what IS the point of upgrading your sound system when you already have such a good one?) for a few thousand bucks. My mum is mourning the loss of all that money because she really wants to go on a vacation to M'sia on one of those VIP bus thingies that now offer a wealth of entertainment services like movies, games and audio. Not to mention much roomier seats. I have to agree with her this time.

Oh well.

Ok so where was I? Oh yes, the amplifier. So now he's been blasting these oldies all day since he bought it in the afternoon. And they're not even original oldies! They're covers done by China singers. I mean, I've nothing against them, besides the fact that I generally hate covers.

Can you imagine how torturous it is, listening to oldies at full blast? When I'm trying to get an afternoon nap, too.

Anyway, now that my exhibitionist needs are fulfilled, I shall pose you guys this question that has been on my mind for the longest time. It's quite hard to put into words, though...

OK, I shall use a scenario. Let's use the amplifier scenario. So the characters are Dad, Mum and...er that's all.

Ok here are the facts: Dad bought the amplifier. Mum's not happy cos then they can't go on holiday. Mum thinks (let's pretend she does; I dunno if she does) Dad is selfish for purchasing the stereo instead of taking her out for some VIP coach luxury. Dad thinks (again, let's pretend he does) Mum's being selfish cos clearly he should have the right to using his own money to satisfy his own wants without having to feel guilty about it and without being accused of selfishness.

So, the question is, who's selfish now? Dad or Mum? Who's the one being self-centred? Can Dad sue? Oops, sorry. Too full of law.

I don't know about you, but I find myself encountering a lot of such situations in life. And each time, I ask myself. Am I (or whoever it may involve) being selfish? Or is the other party being selfish? Who's fit to judge? Is there a judging criteria, lines that've been drawn? Or is it merely a case of whose side you're on? Like, say, if I'm on Mum's side, Dad's being the selfish one; or if I'm on Dad's side, Mum's being the selfish one.

It really boggles my mind sometimes. I'd mull over it for a while, then my limited-capacity brain would get so addled that I'd feel like I really could use a Penseive (in Harry Potter, a Penseive is something Dumbledore uses to filter out thoughts when his brain gets too saturated).

Can someone please provide some insight into this?

Well, I hope I've managed to be thought-provoking on this lazy Saturday evening. This is Morphus, and you're reading Snuffles.

Look at my new flash tagboard! --------->

As you can see, I have responded to Flora's irritated comments on not being able to tag on my shoutbox tagboard.

I think it's very nice! It's Made in Singapore (probably), too. Thanks Mandy, for discovering and using it before me and sorry for copying you =p.

Sorry to any friends who are still using dialup connection because it is going to take quite long to load.

In Other News

Thanks to today's Writing for the Web lesson, I made a stunning discovery-Victoria's Secret sells pajamas! And they're really cute. Warning: clicking on this link may cause certain all testosterone-driven male readers to be fixated on said site.

Rollercoaster day, today. Sad Happy Happy Sad.

We are fortunate to have a voice of reason and humanity among us. However, certain things are beyond our control and those which are, are open to debate as to whether or not they were right and moral in the context of such a situation. Guilt floods us all. But what's done cannot be undone. And the situation left little room for choice.

Problems, foreseeable problems. All part and parcel of life. But we grumble on. This incident has opened my eyes. Thought-provoking.

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Gramophone and Borders. Browsing. Happiness. 3 for 2 books. Yay.

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Not-quite job offer. "Big break", friend insists *winks*. =D Thank you for the opportunity, whoever was concerned in the decision-making.

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Rude shock. The sheer irony of it all stings.

I have wished time and again that this chapter would close. And now that it has finally slammed shut, I feel like a door has been slammed shut in my face. I am not shattered, but certainly fazed. I must not be stupid and pathetic and dwell over things that never were. This is the impetus to progress. I must be thankful that things have come to a conclusion and, hopefully, the chapter will stay shut and this blog post will be the last full stop I draw at the end of the last sentence. Will another chapter start? I am doubtful.

But someday, I may hope again. Someday soon. Hopefully.

Impassive, you and you. But it's okay. Others who matter have shown me what I need. And I am grateful.

I hereby end this long draggy rollercoaster day of happiness and sadness, and the whole works. Good night world.

Your English Skills:

Grammar: 80%

Punctuation: 80%

Spelling: 60%

Vocabulary: 20%

I have finally, FINALLY got my laptop back. And it looks like they just glued the hinge back cos there's some remains of this sticky substance which looks suspiciously like UHU glue. Oh well. Hope it stays. They say I must be v e r y careful with it from now on. Sigh! If it's one thing I suck at, it's being very careful.

Anyway the past few days have been great. Friday was Dad's 50th, so we went to a seafood restaurant (Jumbo) to eat. Then, we came back and Dad saw the box of tea (I know, pathetic. But I went all the way to IKEA, okay.) that I'd bought for him. He said "You bought tea for me? Good girl." And pats my head.

Hmm.

I'm still deciding if I resent my dad patting my head at this age.

But, well, he doesn't do it often (the last time must be abt 10 yrs ago), so I shan't complain.

And then yesterday Kenneth (15 yrs old and at the rebellious, nobody-understands-me and everyone-hates-me stage) cooked a bacon-and-eggs breakfast for me and himself! I was thoroughly impressed. The food was, of course, very nice (I kid you not. He can cook 2324342 times better than me. Ok that's not saying a lot, since I can't cook. But he did get decent grades for Home Economics, so there.) Dang, should've taken photos.

And just now Everett insisted on tidying up my table for me. He wants me to play Uno with him. And watch Harry Potter with him (I think). Haha so he had a not-so-hidden agenda, but I do hate tidying up and it'll save me lots of effort when spring cleaning comes along. And I secretly enjoy playing Uno. Though I do hate it when he keeps asking me when I'm going to be free to take him to the movies.

So all's well with the family, and other aspects of my life have managed to not fall "spectacularly to pieces" (Bridget Jones' Diary). So I'm quite a happy bunny. For now. ; )

I have decided to break the silence and blog SOMETHING before you all decide never to come back again. My laptop is STILL down, and the repair shop says that they are having trouble finding the required spare part and will take a few more days (ha! years, more like.) to return my baby to me.

I would love to blog on my home desktop computer, but sadly I cannot because it is at a position where the entire family can see c l e a r l y what i'm writing and I don't like that lack of privacy when I'm blogging. It has a curious way of chasing away my inspiration.

I'm doing fine, life is being kind to me, and I will blog as soon as the repair shop returns my laptop to me.

-Entry ends due to lack of inspiration-

Because my dear laptop has been sent for repair and the repairmen are taking forever with it.

Not that I'm in the mood to (most of the time) anyway.

Till then.