Snapshots of Revelation

Monday, April 30, 2007

ting:

the exam timetable is out. and (almost) everyone's msn nick has something exam timetable-related, be it how screwed they are or how sucky the timetable is.

mine? it's pretty spaced out. (to those who are toying with the idea of visiting me during june/july, here's where you take note, coz i don't see you online right now.) 4th, 7th, 12th, 18th june. boring.

i was hoping for something a little more dramatic. something that would shock me into studying NOW. something along the lines of our a-levels timetable, the sheer adrenalin of having 9 papers in 4 days. or something a little different, like an exam clash, just so i can get "preferential exam treatment" and sit in an exam hall all by myself. ok, call me crazy, but yeah.

but still. spaced out or not, it'd be a good idea to start my mugging sessions now. and i realise i'm the first in this apartment to get exams over and done with. which means i gotta spend the next 4 days after my exams tiptoeing around. hmmm.

we made a memory at 8:17 PM

Saturday, April 28, 2007

ting:

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

you have the antidote for this. GET YOURSELF OVER TO MELBOURNE DURING JULY!!!

we made a memory at 9:57 PM

ting:

finally got the chance to take a breather this week. first was potluck (or potbless as we prefer to call it) on tuesday night. huge thanks and hugs to selena for opening up her place (and to the rest for the wonderful wonderful food). :D *hugs* and haha.. bridge ROCKS when you have FANTABULOUS cards!! i love enoch's shuffling skills.. he gave me all 4 aces, 2 kings, 2 queens and a jack (i think). wheeee! upon seeing my cards, i went on a high (who wouldn't?) and couldn't stop laughing. what's even best is that my other three bridge-mates couldn't request for a reshuffle. hehe.. no prizes for guessing who won that game. :D

wednesday was a public holiday, so i spent the whole day lazing around at home, with wei kee keeping me entertained by allowing me to watch him do his pushups via webcam.

and then thursday allowed us girls to catch up for a girls' night cum movie marathon at ira's place. it's been ages beyond ages since i caught up with ira and suba (i love you both!!), so seeing we all have fridays off, last night was a golden opportunity. it's nice to just be in the midst of friends, laughing about nothing in particular, lapsing into comfortable silences and enjoying each other's company.

we watched "patch adams" (which i absolutely love. the last time i watched it was 5 years back i think. robin williams is an awesome actor!) and i love the phrase "excessive happiness". it's something that doesn't come along quite too often.

"red dragon" was another movie on the list. it's the prequel to "silence of the lambs" and frankly, i think it's heaps better than "silence...". or perhaps it's coz i haven't read the book yet (am cursing the fact i can't borrow books in aussie. sigh.). it was thriller at its best (with ira providing the comic relief of hiding behind her pillow and blankets and screaming) and i must say anthony hopkins stole the show. that guy is brilliant. i now wanna watch "hannibal" and "hannibal rising" too!

fell asleep at the start of the fourth movie, so our movie marathon continued this afternoon. "radio" is another really good movie, inspirational, real-life. i love movies that aren't mindless chickflicks, and that give you a warm fuzzy feeling at the end of it all. :)

ended my four days of rest and relax tonight by having dinner with wengyan and enoch, then going over to enoch's place in a bid to "force" him to study (we were probably more of a distraction than anything else). plus two hours worth of hangman with wengyan. :) though nobody wants to play bingo with me! :( why!? (pei! adel! i miss you both!)

told ber and hui what i dreamt last night and their reactions were pretty priceless. especially ber's. hahaha.. but no worries dude, you know i wouldn't. :)

we made a memory at 12:29 AM

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Hui:

look at e time man. and im blogging! nopes. e network security is not broken by me. though i hope i did, so that i can go join IBM :p im on MC.. head is so heavy i cant bring myself to get off my bed. slept until 3+pm. gotta see e doc at 7pm later.. to get MC! my cluster of colleagues there sick sia. fy, zijian (who sits miles away from us) and me have flu and sore throat. dunno wad's wrong with keong. think cough, cold and sore throat, junming (intern) feeling unwell. esther took one week MC e week b4 and is still recovering. and jerel has cough and sore throat. sianz.. e air in e office is no good! actually, we all agree that we felt so much better when we're out of e office. stale air~

im still craving for ktv! (and curry puff. but cannot eat now) woots. eny and kelen back on friday. MAYBE can go on that day (cos fri damn ex leh). BER: join us after ur exams lah. be good and study!

sooo bored. no one to chat with. all busy.

hungry but lots of stuffs cannot eat. haiz..

if i go back office tml and i start to sneeze again, confirm + chop its e air there liao la.

zzz.. feel like sleeping again..

we made a memory at 5:04 PM

Sunday, April 22, 2007

ting:

so i refrained from blogging for two whole days. not too bad huh? well, my reappearance probably confirms your suspicions - i have another major hurdle looming up. 30% midsem test (which i'd refer to as an exam, seeing it's a frigging 30%!!) on tuesday. (ok so in comparison to those back home who are talking a stroll through hell at this very moment, it's probably nothing. but still.) please prayyyyy!

i woke up at 6am (or more precisely, 5.30am. but i snoozed for half an hour.) this morning. on a sunday! what an achievement! but all the energy i dammed up for ushering just drained out the second i took my usher tag off. i was so tired i couldn't even eat lunch, though most of my energy probably went to laughing at peyli and tim, who provided the comic relief. put together, those two are hilarious. how come tim doesn't entertain me the way he does during lunch when we're at home?

before parting ways with jo just now, i was grumbling about the things i had to but didn't want to do. so she said, "just go blog lah." hmph.

there's no one online to provide me with the all convenient distraction. sigh.. and ber isn't replying. he's probably either gaming or studying, though in his case, the former is more likely. (note to ber: OYY! GO STUDY!! YOUR EXAM IS ON WED!!)

alright that's enough. i shall exercise a little self-discipline (yeah right) and go tackle the major pain in the ass. don't sleep don't sleep don't sleep!

*on a random sidenote*: i LOVE sting!! and i managed to convert jovan too! whee! :)

we made a memory at 12:43 PM

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Hui:

piangz, doing a physical config audit is so tedious. cant imagine i gonna come out with a function one next week. give up liao man. do on sunday :p

i am so tired.. but dun feel like sleeping yet.

shit man.. time is really too fast for me. need to make a decision soon. as to which course i wan.

money cant buy u everything. but w/o money, u are nothing.

if i had e money, i wun be working. i'll be studying full-time in SMU/SIM.
if i had e money, i wun be troubled over which course to take and take into so/too much considerations
if i had e money, i'll be able to go aussie with ber (ber buy me presents from aussie ok? :P i dun wan carrots/trees/plants)
if i had e money, i'll be learning how to drive
if i had e money, i'll be able to get a really good camera
blah blah blah blah
wadeva.

forgot to blog abt a joke abt lego. this is super funny.
lego and his team had a team dinner with e clients in a chinese restaurant, and there's this dessert "almond with white fungus". according to my colleague, e almond is like "tang yuan" tt kind, and e white fungus is in it.

lego (telling e ppl at e table): oh, this is called white fungus with sago
colleague (trying to find sago): eh lego, there is no sago wad. i onli see white fungus
lego (scooped some almond and pointed to e spoon): there, sago
colleague (looking annoyed): lego, that is BUBBLES!

LOL! WTF! bubbles become sago! how dumb! hence, a new nickname for him. LEGO SAGO. i like this new nick for him. it rhymes!

everyone practically pengz after hearing abt this joke lah. wah lao, damn hopeless.

oh hahaha, ting is online and we're in a conference window chat with ber now.

delusionary preoccupation says (2:32 AM):
why looking for me?
i aM mY oWn WorSt eneMy~ says (2:32 AM):
cos i bored =X
i aM mY oWn WorSt eneMy~ says (2:32 AM):
oh u wanna see the ps3 vs wii thingie?
delusionary preoccupation says (2:32 AM):
wah! what is this now!!
delusionary preoccupation says (2:32 AM):
i'm some sadddd substitute?
delusionary preoccupation says (2:32 AM):
hahahahahaa
i aM mY oWn WorSt eneMy~ says (2:32 AM):
as i juz said in ur tag, i think u can't see the youtube stuffs on shihan's blog
i aM mY oWn WorSt eneMy~ says (2:32 AM):
but when i'm bored, i'm doing nothing. so u'r a substitute for nothing o_O
i aM mY oWn WorSt eneMy~ says (2:33 AM):
erm. i dunno if that's a gd thing
i aM mY oWn WorSt eneMy~ says (2:33 AM):
haha

LOL!

*continue chatting*

we made a memory at 2:11 AM

Thursday, April 19, 2007

ting:

jeysern just showed me a video presentation of how badly our bathroom was leaking the other day. 0_0 it looked like a storm cloud entered our bathroom. seriously. man.

in other news and in some sort of comfort...

rockabye baby says (11:26 PM):
how are u!!!
delusionary preoccupation says (11:26 PM):
lol i'm ok... have been busy and havent been having a social life
rockabye baby says (11:29 PM):
SAME
rockabye baby says (11:29 PM):
SAME
rockabye baby says (11:29 PM):
:O
rockabye baby says (11:29 PM):
i have so no life
rockabye baby says (11:29 PM):
i blog everyday
rockabye baby says (11:29 PM):
SEE!
rockabye baby says (11:29 PM):
zomg
rockabye baby says (11:29 PM):
evidence
rockabye baby says (11:29 PM):
hhaha
delusionary preoccupation says (11:29 PM):
hahahhahahahhahahahha
delusionary preoccupation says (11:29 PM):
check out my blog
delusionary preoccupation says (11:29 PM):
because i've been blogging everyday too!

see what assignments/mid semester tests worth 30% (and above)/exams do to one?

we made a memory at 9:35 PM

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

ting:

just a thought with regards to the VT shooting (and after seeing how jodi's discussion board is in such an upheaval). it freaked me out a little, especially seeing how i only just read 19 Minutes last week (for those who don't know, 19 minutes talks about the aftermath of a horrific school shooting and gives the readers insight into why such things happen). but i guess there are such things as coincidences, jodi certainly didn't see this coming. and it's totally unfair to push the blame onto her, she wasn't the reason why such a tragedy occurred. if we could reason every bad deed in this world down to the material we read, the movies we watch, the music we listen to.. then shouldn't everything (especially visual entertainment) be banned?

because how many movies do not consist of violence? killings? tragedy? (apologies to fans of the movie 300, but i think it encompasses all 3 aspects.)

19 minutes really gave me an insight of why something like this might happen. i'm not saying i condone such an act of violence (i certainly don't), but at the end of the day, is it really solely just the shooter's fault? or is society to blame? did something traumatic happen to him somewhere along his growing up years? did he look to this path as his only way out? well, i'm just speculating, so don't sue me.

like what jodi said, the all important question we should address now is this: how to help the community heal.

and even though it's perfectly logical (and humane) to grief for the victims and their families, to turn your nose up at the shooter's actions, to condemn him for what he has done, have we ever thought about how, above everyone else, there are people who are going through worse?

what about the shooter's family, the ones who loved him, his parents who raised him ever since the first day he entered this world? how would they live their lives now, after losing a son and having to bear the burden of his actions? how would they spend every single second of their lives in the days to come? pondering over what made him carry through such an act? wondering if somehow, they are to be blamed for it and agonising over everything they did or did not do? how he could live with them and yet be a total stranger to them?

i guess what i'm trying to say here is this: every story has more than one side to it.

my condolences goes out to the victims, their families and loved ones, the shooter's family and those who thought they understood him.

you'll be in my prayers.

we made a memory at 10:07 PM

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

ting:

this is one reason why i love my advertising class. :) enjoy!

(click to enlarge)

we were on the topic of competitive positioning today and this is an excellent (as well as a hilarious) way of how durex engaged in implicit comparison with its competitors.

the following four ads came out in 2006, as sort of a "car ad war". and they are all geniune.

BMW started the war...:

...audi had to counter BMW's ad...:

...subaru decided its input was needed as well...:

...but bentley's chairman had the last word:

***

audi came up with an excellent advertisement where it engaged in competitive positioning. check it out: http://paultan.org/archives/2006/08/08/cheeky-audi-advertisement/

***

another two ads i was hunting for were that of lexus's and nissan's (don't ask me what's with car companies engaging in competitive advertising). i can't seem to find them anywhere (perhaps it has something to do with copyright regulations?), not even on youtube. but it's awesome and i'll post them up here if i do somehow manage to get hold of them. maybe i should email my professor and ask her. hmmm.

we made a memory at 5:20 PM

Monday, April 16, 2007

ting:

part two of my adelaide trip. likewise, comments are very very very much appreciated.

on day two, we visited two of the most beautiful places ever, this german village called hahndorf, and this jetty/pier/beach called glenelg.

in the village called hahndorf:

IT'S AUTUMN!!!!!

what more can you ask for on a holiday? bright colours, clear blue skies, awesome weather, good company... it's almost like a taste of heaven.

take it from me. the best thing about wandering around on foot (instead of in a car) is that your senses get opened up a 100% to all that's around you, and you see the most incredible photo opportunities ever! :)

and then we went strawberry picking!!! :) :) :)

jo hard at work

and while we were sitting around enjoying the sweet taste of freshly picked strawberries...

i keep getting trees growing out of my head, no matter where i move to. grrrr.

a photo of jo trying to take her own reflection through my shades.

just look at all the different shades of leaves. how come we don't get this in melbourne??

as can be seen, i have a visual love affair with anything tree related.

back to wandering the streets of hahndorf

we then lunched in this german restaurant, famous for its german sausages. i was thinking of hui all the time, coz she'd probably kill for this, given her love for sausages. hehe.

a little bit of boredom leads to vanity...

...and scouting for photo opportunities

fooooooood

and then, glenelg. :)

what's a little pony doing on the beach?

i went gaga over trying to capture silhouettes of birds in midair, hence the array of "bird" photos:

day three was a relatively nonsense day which was originally meant for shopping, but (won't go into details here), our plans didn't quite work out. i didn't take any photos as well, the bulk of day three's shots are with jo which i don't have with me as yet.

on the journey back to melbourne, being restless in the coach, what else can one do?:

alright, i'll spare you guys from more. so there you go, the visual documents proving our presence in adelaide! :) huge cheers to jo, my fellow traveller and the person who planned the entire trip (i just did the bookings, coz i was lazy to engage in anything else)! :)

***

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! :D:D:D FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY managed to talk ber into taking a trip down under. whoohoooo! our plan is for him to get to melbourne, then maybe head up to gold coast together. ahhh the excitment!! and he'll be here for quite a while too.. maybe three weeks to a month??? ahhhhh! i'm so excited i can't do nuts right now. pity hui won't be part of this. :(

but oy. don't break my heart or i'll skin you when i get back to singapore.

and august might bring several of my nus friends here too - huili and zicong. wheeee! come come come come come!! :D

we made a memory at 8:41 PM

Saturday, April 14, 2007

ting:

i'm here to lament about the incredibly crap system i had to go through to book 8 tickets for the phantom of the opera. i spent 2.5 hours just doing that. can you imagine?? and i was more stressed up than if i were doing my assignment.

sigh.

so, after the immensely painful process of attempting to locate good seats (thanks to jo and enoch for helping me click and hold on to seats), out of sheer curiousity, i went to check out the sistic website. for one, phantom of the opera is performing in esplanade. oh mannnnnn i would kill to watch it there. with its amazing sound system and huge stage and fantastic seating........... and the sistic website is so much much much more organised too! at least they tell you every single thing in one page, without the need to click around like an idiot.

first page = rundown of dates and availability of seats (eg. limited, good, excellent).
second page = the floor plan, various categories which are colour coded, price, which seats are available etc.

for the stupid system i had to go through.. it's like click on date - click on purchase button - then availability comes up - click on what categories you want - then they tell you whether they have that many seats adjacent to each other or not - then you confirm - then they tell you your seats AND they don't even provide you with the floorplan. -_-

i'm tired.

there are times (relatively few, but still) where i am proud to be singaporean, proud of what we have in our country, proud of how organised and easy it is to do something there.

only silver lining: it's cheaper to watch phantom in aussie than singapore. =p but to my singaporean friends back home, DO GO! it's in esplanade!! you can't go wrong!!

we made a memory at 12:13 AM

Friday, April 13, 2007

ting:

i've hit a roadblock in my advertising assignment, and i can't stop thinking of "nineteen minutes", hence this. part one of my adelaide photos (i can't post all in one entry.. there are too many.)!! comments are very very much appreciated, criticisms too. please don't pretend and tell me they are nice when you think they suck, otherwise how can i improve? :)

admittedly, i was stressing out the entire bus ride to adelaide. i was literally dreaming of photography, as this is my first official chance to get some practice on gorgeous scenery and in a different environment. i hope i utilised it well!

the ride from melbourne to adelaide:

the coach responsible for getting us there in one piece

during one of our stopovers

i threw this shot out of focus so as to create a hazy dreamy halo. not too sure if it worked.

our first day in adelaide comprised of getting to our accommodation, checking in, then heading out straight after, so that minimal time will be wasted.

we were actually staying at backpack oz, which is affilated to the guest house, but i realised too late i totally forgot to take photos of our actual accommodation, so this would have to do.

believe it or not, this photo is actually a reflection. it's amazing how, with the correct lighting, it comes up crystal clear.

my fellow traveller

adelaide's only tram line

a slice of life in adelaide

i was quite surprised to see flowers, despite the fact it's mid-autumn now.

victor harbour

the horse drawn tram that takes tourists to granite island

while waiting for the tram to take off...

a little invasion of privacy? whoops!

up close and personal with the fantastic "machine" that tugged us there

granite island turned out to be a total complete con job. the photos on the website were gorgeous, making me really excited. when i got there....... it was all rocks. -_- you think i would have guessed beforehand, just from the name alone. plus, being mid-day, i couldn't get any soft allure to my photos. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.