i'm partially distracted by mum in the background listening to her $1.99 karaoke vcds at the moment.... hahaha... she's complaining about the quality (suddenly loud, suddenly soft, rough and scratchy etc etc..) but i think the funniest is the fact that they show really random scenes, like flowers that are out-of-focus, or women dressed in 60s swimwear in totally amazing places.... and i like the in-between bits (i.e. in-between two songs) where they will pause.... awkwardly.. for like 10 seconds or even more on this one single out-of- focus flower swaying in the breeze.. waiting for the other song to come on.... hahaha...



am juggling a whole plateful of different personal, studies and work projects now but am strangely feeling elated... i think i'm feeling high from all the busy-ness doing what i love to do... cool... :)

womad singapore 2002 was very good... caught it last nite at fort canning for the fifth year running - i think..... it helped that the weather was really cool from the midday drizzle, the crowd was enthusiastic (almost like last year's) and we had a nice big poncho to sit on.... :)... notable number of acts from Africa (the absolutely divine Rokia Traore from Mali, Chartwell Dutiro from Zimbabwe - who performed with our own Sri Warisan Performing Arts - creating a dikir barat meets african drum sort of thing, and a bit of a let-down from Sally Nyolo from Cameroon - who was supposedly a member of one of my favourite funky african acapella groups - the Zap Mama - who didn't quite manage to get the crowd moving ). also from Latin America (especially Trio Mocoto from Brazil -who really got everyone on their feet with their very samba music - very cool.. despite their middle-age paunches, their rather ragged look in their plain tshirts and their wrinkles crinkling up when they smile- haha.. sorry, so shallow.. and the slightly subdued but still applaudable Inti-Illimani from Chile.. conjuring images of high-mountains and llama goats with their wind instruments..

very strange to see almost no acts from the indian subcontinent (other than something from pakistan I missed on Friday and the dance music duo Badmarsh and Shri (UK)- which isn't really pure indian music though we saw quite a bit of fantastic tabla and north india flute playing in between dj badmarsh's electronic drumbeats and breakbeat music and this uk apache guy's rapping on "peace, love and UNIFICATION!!!" and pleas for all of us to "LIVE RIGHT!!".. almost hypnotic with his repeating it over and over again and asking everyone to jump up and down.. very dizzying...

funny how world music events can never seem to get away from artists trying to promote love and world peace ..... are we all supposed to feel all fuzzy inside after this..? :p

Isn’t blogging odd? Blog addicts like me blog about everything - things we think about, think up, fret over, dream about, experience, muse over and one fine day, we inevitably start thinking (almost out-of-the-blue) about the whole idea of “blogging” itself …. we realize the amount of impact it has had on our lives since we started, all the changes that have happened since, all the real and virtual friends we have made, and also all the time and energy for other things it has taken from us… We muse over it for days.. maybe weeks.. and finally, we take the brave step of deciding (and then formally announcing to the blog world) that we want to take a break from blogging itself… to get back to life as it was … before blogging… usually indefinitely … many times, the blogworld is left grieving the loss of the departure… but we know what must be done must be done..

don’t worry, I haven't gotten to that stage yet so don’t press that panic button just about yet :p... but I did chance upon Richard Cody’s blog – where he pondered the issue and mentioned another two bloggers taking “blog breaks” - Elaine of Kalilily and Stavros The WonderChicken …. I recall also dannybunny and Mary T’s brief hiatus from the blog world at certain low points of their lives… (they are back, fortunately)..

will that day come for me?… who knows….shudder… it almost seems like a natural part of the journey all bloggers will ineluctably have to go through at one point or other.. well, at least I’m still enjoying it for now…. it’s almost exactly one year since I started… :) happy blog birthday to me…

oops.... Shark "Photo of the Year" Is E-Mail Hoax :p

i think i get amused at the littlest things.. for example.. this fishcake at Ah Meng Cafe (wow! they have a website??) that was shaped like a fish... i stopped in the middle of my meal after scooping it out of the "Salted Veg Seafood Soup" and starting laughing at it...



hahaha.... wonder if anyone else ever noticed.... was it to amuse me or to amuse the cook??

glad someone at the kitchen enjoyed his work anyway... :p

Bad Day At Work

received via email..."Although this looks like a picture taken from a Hollywood movie, it is in fact a real photo, taken near the South African coast during a military exercise by the British Navy.

It has been nominated by National Geographic as "THE photo of the year"... umm...

this page has amazing pictures of the Mola Mola (aka "Sunfish") by Mike Johnson.. the dream of every serious diver.... :)

car died again this morning..barely two weeks after i serviced it and barely a week since i mentioned knowing nothing about maintaining a car... barely a whimper as i cranked up the ignition...

AA guy came just now to tell me battery is "gone" (but not before a "knight in shiny armour" came by helpfully at the carpark and asked if he could (a) help to drive me to a car workshop "at balestier that is still open at this time", or (b) try to help jumpstart the car, or (c) help me to jumpstart car the next morning or (d) find out what's wrong for me.... anyhow, i declined gently with "err.. no need lah.. l call AA already..." which of course he said "Actually, you don't need to call AA".. err... so he could help me??? durrhh... oh well, anyway, "AA uncle" was less sleazy and sold me a new car battery (but not before "Helpful Guy" exclaimed loudly "wah, so expensive. i can get you a cheaper one"), helped me fix it up and went through a quick Car Maintenance 101 with me on what to look out for and how to take care of the car..



it struck me how much owning a car has cost me so far.... and how much more it will cost me over my lifetime.. is it really worth it? i know that many people who drive (or should i say everyone??) says it is impossible to live without a car once you have owned one..... i'm sure i'll get used to it.. once i see the benefits of having more money in my bank .... to travel or something...... hee hee.... :)

Art For The Misfit

a really bad bus ride on the way to lessons this evening.. that's all i remember... a 15 min bus ride that took more than a full hour, stuck in a freezing cold bus in a horrid jam along bukit timah rd, even though there was no sign of any road works or malfunctioning traffic lights or the like.. very odd...... decided not to go for lessons in the end.. the first lesson i am missing for my course since i started attending lessons in January... took a long 45min walk home from Ngee Ann Poly (I changed my mind about taking the lesson right outside SIM) and enjoyed the nice breeze, mixed with this particular "forest fragrance" wifting from the huge and spooky jungle opposite SIM.. randomly recalling a chatty taxi uncle telling me how he would park his taxi somewhere nearby and go and hunt for durians in the forest..alone.. and how he has all the tools for cleaning, opening and enjoying durians all packed in his trunk and how he once lost everything 'cos a hotel porter took everything out from the trunk..... it's funny how long, relaxed walks, alone, bring up all sorts of random memories...

stopped to shop for breakfast options in cold storage and ended up buying a loaf of bread and a packet of cheese... strangely, establishing a routine of eating breakfast in the morning has been a struggle for me since some 5 years back when i started working (gosh, has it been that long??).. it just seems so hard to buy something that is worth getting up in the morning for; and actually getting up in time to eat it.. besides, i hate cornflakes... and the nearest hawker place is quite far away... let's see if bread and cheese will do the trick...

or maybe i should just sleep early... oh well, good nite then...

ah pek pushing shopping trolley (filled with cardboard boxes & stuff)

today.. the saga of the defiant computer continued... i managed to fix the hard drive back (knocking myself once on the head, once on my elbow and scratched myself on my hand), reinstall Windows 2000, reinstate a new log in name and administrator function... but found myself still not able to link up with the computer in the front of the store via cable... this meant that some of the functions could not be done, including closing of yesterday's transactions and so on... i decided to give up and started customising the new and clean Windows set-up, installing Office 2000, creating accounts in Outlook Express, new desktop icons, new favourites, internet dial-up functions and the like... all was well and fine - and life began to take on a semblance of normality ..... when suddenly.....

** p o o f ** i found myself locked out of the system again!!! even though i was clever enough this time to create an additional adminstrator log-in name so i could still modify the adminstrative functions of the computer using another userid, i was nonetheless not able to log in under the name i created earlier, under which all the fancy customisation had been done.. :( i sat totally dazed in front of the computer, the feeling of deja vu washing over me... i helplessly fiddled with the icons and buttons i knew and yet.. nothing... nothing worked.....

anyway, to cut things short, i was rescued in the end by my favourite IT help.. and it seems that finally, all things have been fixed once and for all.. (i hope..)... still, i realised much of the day was gone trying to get the silly system up.. . talk about productivity loss.. sigh...

the Singapore Art Museum's Rodin - A Magnificent Obsession - exhibition, is quite frankly.. magnificent! Auguste Rodin's lifelong study of the human form and expression, coupled with his imagination and extraordinary style, had me totally mersmerized by the bronzen statues and masks yesterday morning, as i managed to catch a glimpse of the truely world-class exhibtion before rushing into work... some of the sculptured works exuded so much expression and intensity (of sorrow and despair mainly) that one can barely tear one's eyes away from just staring at them in wonderment....

wow, imagine having one of Rodin's sculptures at home!! if i'm really a collector, i'll probably get one of the really expressive masks or a replica of the Thinker... so i can look at it every now and then and just.. ponder... as Rodin says.."What makes my Thinker think is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes."... wow.. pretty intense, huh? :p

for those who missed the exhibition (which is free, btw) which ended yesterday, here's Rodin's Thinker In Lego....

every mishap has a silver lining... so i figured out how to muck around with the inside of the work computer, remove the hard drive, bring it home, fix it up with the computer @ home, get all the stuff in the hard drive out and now i have the data all backed up both in the home computer AND on CD-ROM - very kiasu :p..... quite an achievement for me.. really... opening the metal casing outside the CPU and looking into it is like peering into the frightful unknown for me....the never-before-treaded dimension.... so now at least i learnt what the data cable is and why there is so much wiring in the computer.. they are actually power supply plugs supplying power to all the different drives and there is actually a spare "socket" to stick in another hard drive if i want too... ummm..... cool..... i think it wouldn't be too long before i can actually figure out how to set up my own home computer! :) *pat pat* to myself....

what it looks like now..

i'm blogging now cos i want to capture this moment... this moment of great suffering and distress.. it's Sunday, 8.45pm, the end of a really mad and busy workday.. have been on my feet since 11 - with streams and streams of people coming in, answering lots of questions, doing a million and one things, and spending a lot of time helping out at the cashier 'cos the new salesperson we have is so incredibly blur.....and now, when i should be heading home to rice, dishes and hot soup, i find myself still in the office.... it's freezing cold, very quiet, very dark.. i'm feeling really hungry, really tired and close to tears... and why?? cos the stupid office computer has just suddenly logged me out and all my files are stuck in the hard drive!!!

i'm kicking myself for not backing up my files in another computer even though i half contemplated on doing it today but procrastinated... i so hate Windows 2000... i can't log back in now using my usual user name and password (i'm using another username now and it doesn't have access rights to the files!! grr.... :( ) ... and i can't understand why...

it's moments like this that you wonder why we didn't stick to using pen, paper and the abacus...

bad nightmares seem all the rage nowadays (see karen's - with zombie cats and zombie horses - and evon's - hearing voices ).... had a really long nightmare last night, so long it almost seemed like reality.. in the dream, a close friend of mine died (i still shudder thinking about it) - i'm not sure how it happened but i know i was there and i remember being really upset and wailing out loud (very dramatic..) - for some reason, i remember the face was quite white.. eeks... spooks... nevermind.. shan't talk about it anymore.... and no need to try guessing who it is...

just watched xXx (aka TripleX) - supposedly the "macho" answer to sissy James Bond 007 - watch it if you like extreme sports of any sort.. but if you are looking for good acting and plot.. forget it... seriously, i think the plot was probably conceived while the scriptwriter was nursing a bad hangover over his potty, and then the actors had to figure out how to act the whole damn thing out..... grrr... really quite bad.... and fancy calling it TripleX - aren't there any other names to pick from??

witnessed the aftermath of a really nasty accident just now... the headlights of one car was thrown a good 100 metres away!



how could it have ended up looking this bad?? sigh..... hey drivers, be careful on the road, ya?

have been very confused and dazed over the last couple of days.. think i haven't recovered fully from dive trip.. zzz... couple that with not having a moment of rest while working (since one staff is on one weeks' leave), the pile of things that need to be done once i get into office, a string of late nights, working on course projects etc etc.. can hardly keep my eyes open on the bus to work... glad i can sleep in later tomorrow morning cos am on afternoon shift.. phew...

watched spooky movie < t h r e e > last night... a trilogy of movies (one korean, one thai and one hk) all different but connected in one way or other.. very worth the money and the scare... highly recommended.... but have to admit was rather spooked ... haha... :p



on a totally unrelated note: was astounded today at how little i know about car maintenance.... was speaking to my coursemates during the break and was surprised to learn that we can actually check the engine oil ourselves (there is apparently this transparent container thingy there with markings), that old cars should use "mineral" rather than "synthetic" engine oil, that radiator water should be checked and refilled often etc etc..... i think i am too reliant on AA to save me every time.. .. either that or the "knight in shiny armour"... hahaha.... except that we figured that if we try that late at night or in an isolated place (like - gulp! - Lim Chu Kang), we will probably not get a "knight in shiny armour" but a "woman in white dress" instead...

HAHAHAHA.... ok ok.. lame... :p

long weekend dive trip to pulau perhentian (malaysia)

the beautiful beach
soft & white sand
sipping milkshakes beneath netting canopy
very ang "ang mohs"

back from pulau perhentian, still my favourite dive spot in malaysia, so far north it is one hour away from the Thai border - as close as you can get to the perfect beach holiday albeit the inevitable tropical flies and vicious nightime mosquitoes. fantastic diving - everything we wanted to see - turtles, sharks, stingrays, beautiful hard & soft corals and for some unpredictability and excitement, a rare and terrifying attack by a triggerfish pair (think we came too close to their nesting ground) on one dive and diving to freezing zero visibility on another. pictures of the beach do not do this place justice - the soft, white sandy beach stretches far beyond the water's edge - creating a wide beauiful playground - and yet stretches the other way as well, far into the calm, balmy and clear blue sea, allowing one to walk hundreds of metres into the sea without once stubbing one's foot into rocks and corals.

incredible place - all in, including diving, accoms, food & transport for only S$300!! highly recommended!

kai is one of my most animated friends.... allowing me to try out creating animated gifs...

went for a short run today, after a hiatus of two weeks... when i started, my legs were feeling like steel and my breath were tired and uneven.. but i persisted... soon, the exhilarating feeling was back again.. the feeling of pounding solid concrete under my feet, my muscles and lungs screaming for air and my hands swinging carefree by my side.. just the simple feeling of being really connected with my body and knowing what it can do..... of being able to keep running and seeing the trees and street signs breezing past me... :)

check out some pseudo panoramic shots i took today.. hahaha......

i am stuck with 3/4s of a box of "crunchy blueberry and almond-filled" Blueberry Morning® cereals from Post® Cereals. i thought, with the nice packaging and all, that they would be at least as edible as the Oreo O's, if not better, but they are not. they are full of hard and tasteless slabs of corn flakes and dried pieces of raisins with the highly elusive and highly chopped-up slices of dehydrated almonds. they don't inspire me to get up in the morning. and so i am stuck with more than half a box... wish the people researching for better tasting cereals in the Post® Cereals lab can come up with yummy cereals for cereal-haters like me soon...

all these flavours and i can't find anything i like... sigh...

anyway, here's some slightly-related stupidity: zthing's Failed Breakfast Cereals

is it really just me? i'm not sounding too heartless and uncaring i hope, but i really don't think the news about the grisly discovery of the dead body of the woman who works in the betting outlet (in this morning's Straits Times) really makes for excellent front page news, especially if one has the habit of reading the papers first thing in the morning, either before breakfast or during it... i can't seem to get the news out of my head now, especially the bit where it is written:

".... her son, a police national serviceman, became distraught and shouted at scores of passers-by who had gathered to watch the commotion.

'Who killed my mother?' he cried repeatedly.

He later hugged his father, who sobbed loudly: 'Daddy's a failure. I couldn't protect your mother.'

it was almost a scene from a movie... this sort of thing just sticks in your head, like one of those melodramatic scenes from a local drama series, and you wonder if the journalist could have written it in another manner instead... ever since Straits Times supposedly made some changes to the way they reported news (so as to reach out to more Singaporeans), they have become a lot more sensationalistic (à la tabloids), which in my humble opinion really doesn't make for great journalism (albeit making for pulse-racing news)... they should just keep that for the New Paper, at the very most...

anyway, i think i should go for a run to get it out of my head... sigh...

after yesterday's eye-opening, "acupuncture-point-manipulating"Tieh Ta session where i emerged "cured" of my back pain, i now feel funny all over the rest of my body (ok, i exaggerate a little), shortness of breath and am suffering from strange aches and pains... umm... is this normal?? hope this is not a case of what the Chinese term as "walk-fire-enter-demon" i.e. so-called "ultra deviation" (Zhou Huo Ru Mo) in Qigong practice...

:O ....... ahhhhhhhh.....!!!!!!!!!!!!

watched S I G N S and decided that i really really dislike shows that hint about the possibility of alien invasions ....



maybe we all really dislike aliens because we watched movies that depict them as evil and ugly.. just like how many people hate sharks after Jaws.. umm...

O+ (D = o ( -- o ok ok... that's my lousy attempt at ASCII-art.. those are my Corn Circles... :p

had a dose of painful "chinese acu-pressure massage" today from (apparently-renowned) Dr Li (see namecard below) to get my back injury fixed "once-and-for-all" so i can go with peace of mind for my dive trip (to Pulau Perhentian) next weekend.



traditional chinese massages can be so incredibly effective (i.e. very speedy - probably because it concentrates on the relevant "acu-points") but very very painful when it is being done (once again for the same reason). the amazing and very credible doctor squished my toes and took my pulse and figured out straight away that the root of the problem really wasn't in my back but in my neck and shoulder instead! :O from his diagnosis, i am actually really really "unhealthy", full of clotted blood all over my neck, shoulder, shin, back and even face - which he proved by letting me run my own finger over certain areas of my skin which really did feel strangely "lumpy" (like the steps of a ladder, so he said.. umm.). this unhealthiness was due to many factors, including my previous falls (from way back many years - which is probably right since i have been blading for a while), my poor stretching after my exercises, my poor posture (once again asking correctly if i used the computer a lot) etc etc... the poor blood circulation was the main reason why i always feel a little giddy when i get up suddenly.... how interesting...

he also gave me a prescription (see below) which i am supposed to bring to a chinese medical hall to collect the relevant herbs to boil with slices of ginger... wahh... very traditional indeed, can almost imagine my mother bent double over a crockpot placed over charcoal fire, fanning it with one of those traditional chinese fans and then pouring the super bitter and blackish liquid into a chinese bowl (with dragon motifs) and bringing it to a very ailing me lying in bed... hahaha... :D



oh well....

a happy belated birthday to Singapore!!

a day to truly feel blessed and proud
to be born
in a country of many opportunities
corruption-free
safety in the streets

few go hungry
few go uneducated
we all have
the chance
to experience many things
to explore many places
to contribute
to share
to use whatever talents we have

to know that (almost) every dream is possible
no matter who we are...

it's a day to feel proud to be Singaporean...

I love this quote by Lindsay:

"Before Blogger made it's internet debut, the Internet started losing personality and interaction. Journals, poetry, and writing were getting too boring. Blogger has brought back the fun and excitement!"

it's so true! i mean.. before i was blogging (and before anyone i knew was blogging), i used to turn on my computer once every couple of days only to see if i have new emails or when i need to check up on a particular topic.. i stopped random surfing a long time ago, giving up seeing the annoying "404 Not Found error" pages of outdated websites and webcontent... the internet junk.. bleah!!!

i scored a 16/20 for the "How Singaporean are you?" National Day 2002 Quiz which shows that i am a ....

16-20:True-blue Singaporean ... cool... :)

btw, i've finally received the email from Dr Maryam Abacha - the fake wife of the late Nigerian head of State General Sani Abacha.. have you?? hahaha...

gathered with a bunch of globetrotting-loving friends today (i think we have covered some 50 to 60 countries at least between all 7 of us) and felt all that wander-lust feeling again... over an enjoyable dinner of black pepper crab, chilli crab, sweet baby squid, fried kailan and steamed drunkened prawns (jumbo seafood @ east coast seafood centre) followed by gourmet coffee (@ siglap....

isn't it wonderful that we live in a world with so much diversity and variety and culture... and just so many possibilities??

i really wish that every single soul in the world can learn to appreciate the wonderfully exciting world we live in as much as my friends and I do..... then maybe we would have much less of all the unnecessary violence we have today... fighting, wars, discrimination....

isn't it funny how sometimes something you learnt (which you thought was purely academic) in an earlier setting suddenly just "pops" into your head out of the blue, and stays around and you just keep thinking about it, as if it is trying to tell you something about your life now or when it actually does answer a ponderous question you have in your head??



Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs was the "thing" i kept thinking about on my way home today, while driving and in the shower just now....

thank you everyone! my back feels a lot better now! :)

i think there are two possibilities to my quick "semi-recovery":

1. the back pain was probably not due to a slipped disc but was instead a serious muscle injury (as many of you have been trying to tell me, but to no avail... ya, i know, i wouldn't be walking around if it really was a slipped disc.. :p)

2. i have been really careful with my back since then, avoiding sudden movements (which is not easy for an "animated person" like me) and (i think) practicing the "Alexander Technique" as prescribed by my dear nurse sister - a method that advocates good posture and achieving "new balance in the body by releasing unnecessary tension while sitting, lying down, standing, walking, lifting, and other daily activities..."

caught classic german movie Bremen Freedom (Bremer Freiheit) just now at the Goethe-Institut... a bleak & grainy 1972 adaptation of the real-life story of Geesche Gottfried - a determined (but somewhat short-fused woman) who systematically poisons all (mostly men) who stand in her way of asserting her right to think for herself (as a woman), to find happiness (despite questionable morality) and self-determination (to run her "harness-making" business without the help (or perhaps hindrance) of men).... she serves them cups of coffee laced with "rat butter".... Hey guys, beware of women who serve you coffee after you offend them!!! hahaha...

all i can do now is eat, sleep and watch vcds.... i want to go running!!! :( don't know if i will get well soon enough to at least run in the fun 10 km race in the Sheares Bridge Run in Sept... :(

went for a leisurely walk today at a very tranquil Bukit Brown Chinese Cemetery just off Lornie Rd - sprawling compound of century-old raintrees, beautiful weather-beaten pre-war time chinese tombstones, long snaking paths that break at forks, rare sweetly singing birds, no buildings as far as the eye can see - another wonderful off-the-beaten track hideaway spot in Singapore... i think the govt does already have plans to develop this place too (just like they did for amazing Bidadari Cemetery), so go see it soon.. it's a great place for a run as well but girls, do bring a guy with you.. it's quite quiet.. and do wear long pants... long grass and mosquito-infested the place is..

had a taste of roibo mango shiok at Quickly Bubble Tea Shop - quite a weird and thick gooey drink but this roibo honey thingey (from some prehistoric forest in west malaysia) apparently has some great anti-oxidant properties, cures all sorts of ailments, fights fatigue, insomnia and ezcema and is anti-ageing... umm.. sounds like a miracle drink.. haha... wonder if it helps to cure backaches as well... : |

sudden wanderlust thot of the day:
take a short break to see the Proboscis monkey at Bako National Park (Sabah)

other than professing to be one of the hot-blooded youths chipping away at the berlin wall in the huge party of 1989, having an amazing knowledge of interesting languages (other than German and English, she also knows Romanian and some local Saxon-German dialect and is now learning French), and having a head for silly jingles (e.g. like the Müller one i mentioned yesterday - this is how it goes:

Mueller Milch, Mueller Milch, Mueller Milch die schmeckt.
Mueller Milch, Mueller Milch, die weckt, was in Dir steckt! - this is courtesy of her last email to me.. :)

my amazing ex-roommate has kept in touch with almost everyone we both know way back in London and has now brought us all (from as far flung as Cyprus, Germany, London, Paris, Singapore, Spain, United States and Belgium ) together in a common mailing list!! this is so exciting... shows how much technology and the internet can really bridge the distance between people... i reckon we should all get together for a mini UN conference kind of thing soon?? :p

on another more unfortunate note: it seems like i have really been put out of action for a while... my over-strained back felt worst than ever today and the very kind ah pek chinese physician diagnosed it as a minor slipped disc (something which - for some reason - i used to think only other people will get..). i have been advised to "not strain it further until it heals" ... what does that mean?... that maybe i should take up... gurp!... knitting???

oh dear.. what am i going to do... physical activities are just about the only things i really enjoy doing... :( ... oh well, i guess i can still read and paint and do clay modelling, i suppose... (trying not to be too bratty here, you see.....)

all thanks to my dear friend lynn, i have gotten in touch again with my long-lost German room-mate from London!! just got a long and cheerful email from this spunky and fascinating girl who spent the last couple of years working and travelling all over Europe, including even short stints in Kosovo, Serbia, Ukraine.... wow... :) this is so exciting!! we used to sit and talk (and sometimes even drink :p) late into the night, play table tennis (she was one of the very few people i know who actually play the game), and i learnt heaps from her.... we even greeted each other Good Nite in the other's native language.. *Guten *Morg en* i remember myself saying.. and even singing the tv commercial jingle for Müller (which is in German) cos we both love to eat Müller rice pudding so much...

this is my wonderful room-mate:



it's really nice when people in your life whom you thought belonged to the past and whom you will probably never meet again suddenly reappear.... :D would be wonderful if we actually get to meet up at some point..

today was a day of annoying mishaps...

1. the holga camera i ordered online eons ago finally arrived... but they delivered two instead of one (and charged me accordingly) so now i have to decide whether to keep the extra one, sell it away, or to send it back.

2. i passed under the erp gantry while getting into work and it didn't register the cash card in my in-vehicle unit. checked with LTA and they confirmed that i will be sent a summons letter (penalty: $11) and will need to write an appeal letter to get it waived. very mah fan..

3. i bent to pick up a stack of canvases while rushing out to do some deliveries and overstrained my back (which has already been acting up randomly since i fell rollerblading a couple of weeks back) and i had to go down to NUH to get it checked (but only after i did the deliveries - which took me a good 4 hours as the teachers in both schools were very annoyingly and unnecessarily bureaucratic... sigh...)

but watching Asoka on vcd just now (ya, super long and very drama bollywood movie - with lots and lots of dancing) made things a lot better.. :) though having popular Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor falling in love in the movie was quite bizarre as i remember they were in-laws in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (another Bollywood flick).. oh well.. never mind.. i'm blabbering..

PROJECT AWARE - DAYANG 2002 - "REMOVAL OF THE CROWN-OF-THORNS STARFISH"



Method of Removal:

Step 1: Find these creatures
Step 2: Turn them over carefully
Step 3: Stab their soft underbellies repeatedly with your knife, dagger, sabre, kris.. whatever... (stop to watch them struggle.. occasionally.. but do not be distracted by their pleas - do not forget they are pests!)
Step 4: Once they are sufficiently perforated, fishes will attack them and reduce them to hapless shells...
Step 5: Go back to Step 1

oops.... that sounds really cruel...

at 8 o'clock this evening, i panicked.

i realised that i haven't had a "new thought" for the whole of today... in large part due to the hectic and yet monotonous nature of the tasks i had to do today.

you see, i have this little personal goal (which probably sounds somewhat silly to some people) to have at least one "new thought" every day - an aim that grew out of a personal mission to exercise my brain a little at a time so whenever i need to really brainstorm or work out something creative, i will find it less hard (the analogy of using your muscles constantly so they don't atrophy.. :p)...

fortunately, at 9 o'clock, I was suddenly struck by the realisation of how the art shop can actually be successful, and the actual strategy that kai and i must work out.... i also realised that i should skip some of my lectures on Saturdays so i can take up the laser sailing course that i have been thinking about..... these definitely qualify as "new thoughts".... ya.. hee hee...

hence the day is saved...and life is exciting again... :)

non sequitur: so you don't like the powerpuff girls.... decide "Who Would You Kill On Powerpuff Girls?" (please try not to kill Buttercup because she is my favourite... :) )

a talk with a good friend of mine yesterday triggered off this pondering in my head about life, living it, and what achieving the full potential of our earthy lives really mean.. for my friend, there is this concept of "life spans" - which does not actually refer to the period of our lives from the very first breath to our last.... instead, this concept of "life spans" refers to the different periods of our lives... for most people, the various so-called "phases of our lives" is differentiated by the different physical, financial, or psychological/mental states we are in at each stage.. for example, we are financially dependant when we are young, then we start working and earning and finally, (hopefully), we are comfortable and can retire... there is also the stage when we are too young to go anywhere without our parents, to when we are at the peak of our physical and mental abilities and finally, when the ravages of age catch up with us....

my friend, someone who has travelled much of life's journey and seen and experienced much, reminded me gently - as i spoke of my ambition, goal and hard work to learn and study as much about managing a business as i can now and eventually work towards owning a business - that there are certain other important life goals that i have that can only be achieved in this very same "life span" that i am in now. even when the time is through and i do achieve what i want in my career, i may then look back and find other equally important life goals neglected and hence too late by then to do anything about them... for example, fear, old age and family commitments might have caught up... or the enthusiasm might have died...

the taste of regret ... would i be able to handle it then...? as author Bradley Trevor Greive says in the lovely "The Meaning of Life" book -

"...of all the awful feelings that make you feel sick to your stomach, nothing feels half as bad as knowing you had a chance to do what you truly love, and you didn't take it."

pardon me if you don't like soya-based products.. but this is the last of the lot…

To-Fu Oyako (C) & Egg To-Fu (W) .. :D… see the whole lot of them here

got a hardcover copy of the rather excellent The Private Life of Plants (based on the 1995 BBC series by Sir David Attenborough) from a budget bookstore today for a little over $10! this comprehensive book covers a whole array of topics on “plant behaviour” from “Travelling” to “The Social Struggle” to Surviving, Flowering and more… I guess what struck me most as I flipped the pages of the book, looking at the amazing pictures of plant spectacle, was the realization that I never really thought of my pots of cacti as being really “alive” – I mean, I know they are alive but they really don’t move much (especially not in front of me) and don’t make a fuss (even when they are ill-treated), so they usually end up neglected on my window sill, lying on the precarious edge between wilting and living… I realised why my plants look the same week after week - when I finally notice them and find time to water them - even though they should really have grown, at least a little bit…. my conclusion is that my plants are emotionally neglected and their growth has thus been stunted.. .

I feel quite responsible for these poor plants.. maybe I should find time to talk to them….?

Life's most important questions most certainly can't be answered with just about any book, even if it is "The Book Of Answers"



kai and i spotted it as we were in the new Centrepoint Times Bookstore during lunchtime and we had a whole lot of fun with it.. it is exactly what it says it is.. just pages and pages of snappy short answers (one on each page).. you are supposed to come up with the question yourself and then flip open a random page and see the answer - though i would not recommend that you take it too crystal-ball gazingly seriously... for example, i asked out loud "Should we go back to work now?" (since it was already way past our lunch hour), the answer was "Absolutely not!" and we couldn't help but burst out laughing out loud 'cos that was exactly how we felt (though not what we would actually do.. :p).. then we asked "Would we be able to keep our jobs till the end of the year?" and the answer was "It will cost you" (so absolutely true!! :D and we already know that!!! hahaha... why else are we working our butts off... :p)

anyway, i think it is all a matter of interpretation and all the answers will probably fit somehow or other after a while...

i love how little girls interpret the powerpuff girls..



the real thing:

To-Fu Bros 2

someone came into our shop today with "Francie", this barbie-doll look-alike. Francie (who is apparently some three-decades-old) had resin-skin that had turned blackish brown and the owner wanted to repaint her... as i was helping the customer, it occurred to me that life-like dolls like that are really spooky.. every moment i was holding her/it, i could imagine she would start blinking/winking/speaking/moving in whatever "chucky-like" way... it was really creepy... that's why i prefer roundish, cutey-style cartoon characters anytime.. i mean, seriously.. if buttercup (one of the powerpuff girls) were to come alive and tell me she wants to take over the world, i'll probably laugh and beat her to a pulp.. but if francie were to do the same, i would probably believe her and flee for my life...

anyhow, read "The Barbie Conspiracy" (please note that this does not reflect my view of barbie-dolls.. it is too extreme a view, even for me..).. seems like mattel really doesn't like people to tarnish barbie's reputation in any way.. they even made barbie a cousin who would get married and give birth so that barbie's figure would not be affected and they could still satisfy fans who want barbie to have a baby to take care of...anyhow, did you know that If barbie were a real person, she would have to be 7'2" tall, her chest would be 38-40", her waist 18-24" and her hips 33-35".. anatomically impossible so it seems...

today was a day of much violence, blood and gore.

at noon, i witnessed the aftermath of an ugly road accident at the traffic junction just across from my apartment block.. a family sedan and a van, too eager/impatient to get to wherever each wanted to go, collided head-on as they came from different directions. The impact was so great that the van ended up mounting the protective metal railings at one side of the road while the car’s front was completely mangled... one of the bloodied victims was helped out of the car and laid on the ground waiting for an ambulance while another had to have his door forcefully opened to be rescued.. they held up traffic for a while till the police and ambulances came... this traffic junction seems particularly prone to accidents and near accidents, judging from the many times we hear cars screeching to emergency stops and actually witness accidents.. i drove particularly carefully today, remembering to myself that "more haste (very often, like in this case =) less speed"...

then we went to watch Powerpuff Girls: The Movie and i tell you, i seriously haven't seen any cartoon quite as violent as this one... while the girls are really a 100x cuter on the big screen (since they are also 100x bigger and with improved graphics to make them more 3D), their violent streak shows through - with their mass destruction of their evil primate enemies (piling up the bodies holocaust-style on the streets of Townsville) - their ability to go for the kill swiftly and nonchalently more impressive than that of a big cat in the wild, and the way they rejoice and cheer as blood and dead corpses and other disturbing images spill out around them.... i agree with this article that one really wonders who the intended audience is.. (in fact, all the kids in the theatre became deadly quiet when all the mayhem was going on.. as if stunned into silence).. a puzzling long period of the movie was also cast in an eerie greyish hue, very unlike the normal weekly cartoon of bright sunshine and cheerful colours... i enjoyed the movie but i wonder if the kids did.. umm...

Poison To-Fu

they had so many mousepads they made it into a couch... unbelievable...

and i really want this Smart Mass Thinking Putty

ducktours sounds like a really fun way to see Singapore.. bit of like seeing the usual but with a twist.. might just do it .. if i can get over the fact that it is $33 (!).. don't recall ever having seen Singapore from the river.. guess should see it while the Esplanade is still under construction.. :).. or maybe only afterwards?...

Hot To-Fu

one of alb's colleague's hamster died yesterday and the poor guy was so upset he almost cried. how very tragic. that's why i don't keep pets.. they are much too dependent and anyway, i can't even keep cacti alive so i reckon i shouldn't torture any more of God's creations until i am way too old to run about and can settle to a daily routine of feeding them and walking them (if they can walk, that is..) i gave alb this Pet Cremation Services contact that his colleague could call, just in case. thot i'll share it here too just in case anyone's pet gecko dies.. :p

To-Fu America

finally...my very own, highly-subjective Checklist Guide To Singapore - contains all the fun stuff i enjoy doing in Singapore (and think all tourists should do) and all the yummy stuff they should eat

::guimp:: the ORIGINAL world's smallest website - is really hard to look at after a while..

To-Fu Bros 1

am still up this late for the silliest of reasons... i was watching the final episode of ... err.. Meteor Garden!!! :p hahahaha... i am feeling incredibly embarrassed as i say this but still, aren't we all at least a little bit curious what the big deal is about this stoney bunch of long-haired, 1.8m tall, apparently "good-looking" guys that have made them so popular all the way across Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and now Indonesia as well?? anyway, i don't think i have ever seen acting this bad and this stiff since the time i was in school and watched impromptu school skits... haha...

but there was one line in the episode that did leave an impression.. when one of the girls in the show used the phrase

"Life's myriad possibilities"

was struck by the truism.....

To-Fu China

hi Karen, i, too, have taken the deathtest and am predicted to die on April 29, 2054 at an equally ripe old age of 79 years old. i have a 24% chance of dying of cancer and 14% chance of being abducted by aliens...

on a more serious note (yah yah, i know life-and-death is already pretty serious a topic but..) i started thinking about something after class today.. something that i have put off for quite a while since i started my interesting work @ the artshop (which doesn't actually have steep prices - just really interesting and affordable, good quality products and superb service - this is just for clarification, Daniel :)) some two years back. before that, i was researching heaps on starting a business and writing some business plans, just for the heck of it... putting it off was so i could experience and learn how to actually run a business - but like all dreams, sometimes, you wonder if the long sleep has actually laid these plans to a permanent rest.. or if age and maturity have dampened the enthusiasm somewhat... things feel a little different now, but still there is a stirring inside when i think about.. umm....

To-Fu Oyako (M)

snapped a pic of a bunch of ah pors in bras basah today, in their typical ah por garb (i.e. grey blouses with little pink and red flowers and matching flowing pants) and i was suddenly struck with this questioning thought: Which of my friends will still be with me when i am that old..? and when we are that old, what will we be talking about?.. and wouldn't it be weird knowing that we are all approaching the end of our lives and the group will soon grow smaller and smaller.... umm.... what would i have accomplished by then...?

Egg To-Fu

did i mention i watched MIIB??? hahaha... loved the show, especially the aliens... :) ... the show is way cool.... imagine the existence of aliens roaming the earth... umm... what if your neighbour is an alien?? how do you know she is not??

hahahaha....

sunset at lim chu kang jetty took our breaths away... tell me if you have seen a place as tranquil as this anywhere else in urban singapore!

i've become one of those fanatical weekend exercise/health freaks... i veg out the whole week, stuff myself with all sorts of unhealthy junk, sleep late, stay up to surf the net, and then, when weekend comes around, i run till i work out some real sweat, swim till i turn toasty tan, rollerblade till i blister, and walk walk walk everywhere, trying to burn off the excesses of the week..... on top of that, i count calories, detox, drink plenty of liquids, stuff myself with lots of fruits and veges, do lots of stretching...

i know this really isn't a good idea.. apparently (read it here), "weekend warriors" put themselves at a fair risk of injury from "over-exercising" and "exercising once a week won't help you improve your fitness levels" .... but you have no idea how unbelievably difficult it is to start a daily exercise regime.. i know 'cos i have been trying a daily run thing since the start of the year... sigh...

see my room.

i describe it as "cluttered but neat". a bit of a tokyo-style, i think.

what say you?

this whole bunch of articles from Guardian Unlimited's | Special report: what's wrong with our food? can really put you off processed food of any kind.....

especially this article called Fowl Play on our favourite chicken nuggets.. (via alb).. plain foul...

the banana fell right off the string when i picked it up... it really was quite a funny moment... my sis and i laughed and laughed and then decided to snap this pic to remember what happened and to laugh at it more... and then i suddenly had a revelation.. i learnt an important life lesson... from the fallen banana..

i realised that Life (as i understand it) is really all about Moments.... funny moments..sad moments.. happy moments.. touching moments.... i realised that life is not a continuous flow of good or bad things happening all the time...or having lots of good times or bad times... or about long events..... mostly, our lives are mundane, routine and pretty predictable.... but then there are Moments.. and they are ultimately all that we remember about our lives at the end of it.. the people at those moments, the weather, the other sensorial stuff.. like smells, sights, sounds.... oh well..... getting sentimental.. :p all from a fallen banana.. durrhh??? hahahahah... :D

i love egg... this is really quite cute...

there's something about studying what i'm studying now (i.e. Grad Dip in Business Admin) that keeps making me mentally extrapolate and translate what i learn about running a business into how i should be living my own life..

for example, learning about Strategy Management (i.e. how a business sets about stating the organisation's long-term vision and mission and how it goes about achieving it) sets me thinking about what my life vision is and how i want my life to be lived in order to achieve this vision...

learning about knowledge workers in Strategic Info Management keeps me thinking about how i should keep myself abreast of info and whether i am making a living using my mind or if i am just merely "turning the cogwheel in a factory" - filling a gap in the workflow rather than achieving anything lasting and significant...

and the latest intense ('cos it is really very technical, what with all these TCP/IP and what-nots) study of how traditional businesses transform themselves into "E-businesses" under the E-commerce Module, with this interesting diagram of a business at its current "As-Is" (traditional brick-and-mortar) state and then at its "To-Be" (full-fledged e-biz) state and the amount of changes that have to be made to move from one to the other, made me think about the amount of "in-between" work and the long (though not uninteresting) journey before one can reach a state of "excellence" in personal success...

either i'm not really paying attention in class or i really understand the concepts well and can already apply them... :p oh well.... whatever...

i found this incredibly funny for some reason...

why brazil beat turkey in the world cup...

the latest issue of idn glows in the dark.. very eerie...



yesterday afternoon's lecture on e-commerce infrastructure (i.e. tcp/ip, routers, client/server applications etc etc) left me utterly confused, stumped by the technical terms and jargons.... i think i really am technologically-challenged, much as i hate to admit it... and it didn't help that it was a sticky, humid Saturday afternoon after a full and lazy lunch... lots of reading up to do...

this guy in class gave me this "look" today when he heard from a fellow classmate that i "blog". the latter had stumbled onto my blog while searching in Google for something really random that he can no longer remember... oh well, i blog about pretty random topics anyway...:p

i still get this "look" whenever someone finds out i am a "blogger" - the look that says.. "why would you want the world to know what you are thinking and doing??"... i don't know... i keep it as a diary... i mean... why not..? just in case i forget what i thought about or said or felt today, i suppose.... then i guess the thought or idea will disappear forever.... it probably doesn't matter to anyone.. but it does to me!... or maybe.. what i should try asking next time is..."Do you blog? no? why not?"

of course i could try to repeat what this article says: "Weblogs aren't just glorified pages of links and rambling personal sites; they are an antidote to mass media. According to the author of "The Weblog Handbook," Rebecca Blood, blogs are also bringing creative expression to everyday people when they need it most."

anyhow.. i started to blog and i haven't yet found a reason to stop.... so... .. let's just say you haven't heard the last of me... :)

-- anyway, if i sometimes seem like i am suffering from Blogorrhea 1. (n) The tendency of bloggers to begin posting the minutiae of their life in an effort to keep their Weblog active...... i probably am... but i usually try my best not to annoy or disgust so give me some space, eh? ;-)

i'm experiencing such a high now from studying the topic of Strategy in class that i can fully understand why some people just can't stop studying and start working like everyone else.... they go to school to get a bachelors degree, then a masters and then a phd.. and just when you thought they have reached the end of their academic road, they surprise you by taking yet another bachelor's degree in a totally new and funky (though not altogether "practical") field, something like archeology, or astronomy, or botany, committing themselves to another couple of years of intense academic work...... but experiencing this high now, studying a topic that has got realtime, real world examples (in the form of the collapse of giants Enron, Worldcom), i really think that sometimes, acquiring knowledge for knowledge's sake can be so much fun... :) ... and (correct me if i am wrong, Lynn..), i always imagine that i will get more "folds" or "nerves" in my brain if i use it more.. i.e. when i die and they cut my head open, my brain will not be so "smooth"... :P

maybe i should get a qualification in art history or something fun like that just for the heck of it....:D... then i could become a museum curator.. or work in an auction house.. haha... :D

For those who just need to engage in a discussion of something D&M ("deep & meaningful"), try The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock:

The Book of Questions may be the only publication that challenges and changes the way readers view the world, without offering a single opinion of its own. Posing 265 questions, The Book of Questions is bound to provoke hours and hours of thought.

Ask your friends. Ask your parents. Ask someone you hardly know. The Book of Questions gives you permission to ask those things that are too bold, too embarrassing, or just too difficult to ask by yourself. You will find questions of integrity; of sex; of what you would do for money; even things too personal to talk about out loud. Whether you use it as a tool for self discovery, or as a provocative way to stimulate conversation, this book constantly challenges attitudes, morals, beliefs-and it challenges you.

but maybe more usefully.. for couples especially, will be this 1000 Questions for Couples - The Book Of Question... :)

still on the topic of conversation:

10 Greatest Conversationalists of All Time (according to Utne.com)

Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.)

The Seven Sages of The Bamboo Grove (circa 250 C.E.)

Martin Luther (1483-1546) - known for his Table Talk

Catherine De Rambouillet (1588-1665)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)

Carl Rogers (1902-87)

Luba Petrova Harrington

Bill Moyers

Indigneous People (e.g. native Hawaiian ho'oponopono)

i'm absolutely taken by this idea of the Conversation Cafe...

"Why Conversation Cafés? Because when you put strangers, caffeine and ideas in the same room, brilliant things can happen. For that very reason, the British Parliament banned coffeehouses in the 1700s as hotbeds of sedition. Might we brew up a similar social liveliness now? With democracy, critical thinking and "the ties that bind" all under siege, this may be the most radical cup of coffee you ever drink."

i really miss having witty debates with like-minded friends (such people like my dear friend Lynn who is now studying the brain in the UK), where we can banter into the wee hours of the morning on a million and one topics from religion, politics, friendship, relationships, dreams, travel, and anything that comes into our minds.. better still, we come up with funny and imaginative new ideas, new ways of thinking about the same things and challenge each other on our philosophies, ideas and plans.. debates can be such fun if they are between two equally open-minded, imaginative, child-like, intelligent people...

as they say in the Conversation Cafe website...

"....your mind is such a beautiful thing. It would be a shame to waste it."

so true... i am so in need of great mental stimulating conversation now.... somehow, studying and thinking during work, while being mental stimulants as well, somehow just don't seem to do the job entirely...

this is really quite lovely... click on it, it's worth your time for the timeless wisdom....
----------
just found that it doesn't really load properly sometimes, if it doesn't, try this.. and then click on "View Presentation"

i am convinced that the world is divided into really technical people (whom i term "Zoids" - a shameless plagiarism of the favourite manga characters) and those who are not... i struggled much of the whole morning trying to reformat my hard drive in the office and to reinstall a new and more stable Windows 2000 and bumped into a million and one "err.. what-to-do-next...err.." situations...

while not being the most technologically-savvy individual on earth, i pride myself on knowing at least an "above-average" amount on what to do with all things electronic & electrical - such as cameras, scanners, printers, computers, pdas, vacuum cleaners, aibos (haha... :p), what-have-you.. but for some reason, there are just some things that are impossible to handle without calling for technical help (in this case alb's help on the phone).. within a couple of minutes, he diagnosed what was wrong, got me to hit a couple of random buttons as the screen was rebooting and i found myself looking at a strange yellow/red screen i have never seen in my life.. i mean, how are we supposed to know that??? you can't even find it in the Windows manual!! and as far as i know, they don't teach this in school... which means.. this sort of esoteric knowledge must surely have been transmitted to these Zoids by another means... i suspect... they are born with it...

these zoids came into earth in the last 20 years (with a proliferation of them in the last 10 years - as evidenced by the sudden surge in technological progress) and their aim is to make the rest of us ("lay people") helpless through the use of crytic language.. we hence become totally dependent on their help and many of us end up employing or marrying or propogating them yet further so soon, they will take over the earth (ever heard of "Geeks rule, ok"??)!!! and with the internet, who knows what's ahead??!!

urgghh.... i propose an immediate return to pen, paper, pinhole cameras and a life without internet!!! stop the Zoids!!!

attended a lovely and very elegant wedding dinner last night @ Grand Hyatt.. bridegroom serenaded bride's entry into the ballroom with a touching and brilliantly delivered rendition of Josh Groban's You're Still You.. very touching. Fantastic food and great wine followed by a futile attempt by the night's MC to have a slightly different "ang moh-but somewhat inappropriate-style" toast to the couple - fortunately, some (slightly drunken??) tables still insisted on doing their Yum Sengs and the dinner once again became more familiar and chinese... umm... ya, i think it is kinda weird to try to toast with shouts of "To the bride and groom!" but still have a chinese-style dinner at a wedding.. very surreal..

caught Steven Spielberg's Minority Report this afternoon - actually found it rather enjoyable and applaud Spielberg on the good plot and nice pace of the movie... for what it's worth, it did set me thinking about the whole idea of arresting people before the crime is committed so the crime is prevented from happening at all.... cool.... technology and the responsibilities that come with it.. an issue certainly worth pondering about.. don't know if the future would really change all that much even by the year 2054.. after all, if George Orwell's 1984 and Stanley Kubrick's Space Odyssey 2001 have really come to pass, we should really be now living in a "big brother is watching" kind of society (err.. umm... are we already..?) and zooming around in spaceships and all that.. but then again, who knows.. maybe changes in society and technology will really accelerate much faster than anyone of us can anticipate in the next couple of years...umm....

...sigh... beyond work and studies, L I F E has become...

d u l l

i n s i p i d

b o r i n g

u n i n s p i r i n g

u n s p o n t a n e o u s

v a p i d

had y u m m y turkish f o o d @ anatolia restaurant @ far east plaza for lunch

l a z y saturday m o r n i n g ... r e a l l y last m i n u t e shopping for tonight's wedding...
@ SIM now for classes.. trying to keep awake...

today's lesson on Strategic Management - ya.. similar to the previous lesson sans the word "Information" - was a definite contrast to the lesson of Tuesday.... first of all, the notes are ten times thicker.. i'm not kidding.. i stacked them both side by side.... then, we have this guy who is actually funny and very sure of what he is teaching.. difference #2..... and instead of just killing time in the most ridiculous way (like what the previous guy did), this lecturer gave a solid 2 1/2 hour lecture peppered with great examples, great facts and superb thinking points... he just made me think and ponder on every single thing he said in class and i can already find many possible applications in my work.... it is eye-opening to realise that as a shop, we really do not have a very solid strategy to guide us and a lot of what happens is based on gut feel and so on.. and we definitely seem to have failed miserably when it comes to sharing our vision with our staff, many who are really just working for the money and little else.. and look forward to the next pay day or off day...

i'm absolutely fascinated with this topic of Strategy now... don't think i know enough about it after this first lecture to talk much about it... but i intend to be an expert at it..

and on the side, i realised i need to set a personal mission and strategy too... seems like i have really been so sucked into the whole work and career thing for most part of this year and it is already July and i haven't seemed to achieve much in terms of personal goals... umm... midpoint check of sorts, i suppose...

started the first day of 2nd semester lessons today - Strategic Information Management - and was absolutely astounded at how bad the lecturer is... even though the topic actually sounds really interesting, on knowledge-based workers and all that...one of my pet interest.

first of all, he has this really annoying habit of tugging at his shirt near the breast pocket part and he does it almost twice every minute... he is all fidgety and nervous and after asking the class if the clip-on microphone is too soft took it off instead of adjusting it to make it louder, making him even more inaudible.. then he gave us this really long break (half hour!) saying that it is because the lesson is going to be really short (so he wants to stretch it??).. .. he also adds loads of errs and umms as he ponders on how else to explain something, only to end up still reading off the notes or saying something that is totally irrelevant or stupid (for e.g. he said that technology is causing a lot of walls to be broken, such as the Berlin wall (ok..) and the Great Wall of China (what???).. . while elaborating on the points in the notes that say that technology collapses time and space (e.g. one CDrom containing 325,000 pages of text.. saving space.. and technology speeding up work), he said that this was an example of technology bridging time and space (huh?? where did that come from??).. my conclusion at the end of the lesson.. no point attending unless i have too much time to kill and want to be fed with wrong info or info i can read myself at my own leisure..

sigh.. hope the other lessons will be more fun.. methinks they structured all the fun lecturers in the first semester and left all the boring ones for this semester...eeks...

have you ever received one of these appeals for help that come with free pens (so you can fill in the form straight away) or coins (so it catches your attention)? there was even one that came with one piece of a pair of chopsticks! i can't remember what it signifies anymore...



i sometimes wonder if the money isn't better spent helping the people instead of stuck onto these letters? umm...

don't feel like talking about today cos in summary, it was all about the sporadic bouts of agony and misery i suffered throughout the day... so shall talk about yesterday instead...

yesterday was a really odd and busy off-day for me. Woke up to a dark and gloomy sky, dashing my morning swimming plans. Decided to put off swimming and running to the evening and ended up spending most of the morning practicing juggling (yes, I can juggle, but not very well..) and eating fruits. Then watched Japanese manga movie Ghost In The Shell for the very first time and sat around reading philosophy books and newspapers. Thought of whipping up a gourmet salad for lunch but ended up fixing a quick meal of instant noodles instead. Dropped by at Alliance Francaise for the Facets exhibition of photographic works by Gilles Massot, Ken Seet, Sha Ying and Jean-Christopher Ballot and was thoroughly inspired by Gilles Massot to print photographs on “Epson Canvas” and then artistically touch them up with oil paints, by Ken Seet to take pictures of ageing housing estates in b&w, by Sha Ying to take candid b&w shots of people at work and play, and (sort of) by Jean-Christopher to take pictures of Singapore and blow them up to astronomical sizes.

Swung by office for about 2 hours to finish up some work, went by SIM to pick up textbooks for next semester (school is starting on 2 July :)) and then went for a nice 5km (10 Oakley dollars) run around the estate. As if that wasn’t enough for the day, I ended the long day with a bunch of great people clubbing @ Newsroom Bar and was thoroughly astounded to find out that this really popular club (it was actually really packed, compared to some of the others which were actually empty) was still playing the very same 80s retro stuff they were playing some 2 years ago when I was still clubbing fairly regularly! :O it was as if the music had just merely followed the crowd all these years.. with their unchanging taste…very bizarre… finally ate a really late supper of boon tong kee chicken rice (with yummy melt-in-the-mouth tofu and raw fish) before calling it a night… phew…

maybe that's why today was such a bad day.. all my energy sapped away by activities of yesterday.. umm...no longer young...

for all drivers especially, see Yes and No, a dyseducational road movie... supposedly educates drivers on the right and wrong way to go about your driving, complete with a chipper soundtrack... it really had me in stitches!! :D hahaha.... maybe the "No"s is really how we have to drive in Singapore??

see cute picture taken at Heeren (courtesy of alb)..

In Japan, they've replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft Error messages with Haiku poetry messages. Haiku poetry has strict construction rules. Each poem has only 3 lines and a total of 17 syllables:five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, five in the third. Haikus are used to communicate a timeless message, often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity -- the essence of Zen.

> You step in the stream,
> But the water has moved on.
> This page is not here.
> ---------------------------------
> Your file was big.
> It might be very useful.
> But now it is gone.
> -------------------------------
> The Web site you seek
> Cannot be located, but
> Countless more exist.
> ------------------------------
> Chaos reigns within.
> Reflect, repent, and reboot.
> ! Order shall return.
> -----------------------------
> Program aborting:
> Close all that you have worked on.
> You ask far too much.
> ------------------------------
> Windows has crashed.
> I am the Blue Screen of Death.
> No one hears your screams.
> ------------------------------
> Yesterday it worked.
> Today it is not working.
> Windows is like that.
> -----------------------------
> First snow, then silence.
> This thousand dollar screen dies
> So beautifully
> -----------------------------
> With searching comes loss
> And the presence of absence:
> "My Novel" not found.
> -----------------------------
> The Tao that is seen
> Is not the true Tao-until
> You bring fresh toner.
> -----------------------------
> Stay the patient course.
> Of little worth is your ire.
> The network is down.
> -------! ----------------------
> A crash reduces
> Your expensive computer
> To a simple stone.
> ----------------------------
> Three things are certain:
> Death, taxes and lost data.
> Guess which has occurred.
> ----------------------------
> Out of memory.
> We wish to hold the whole sky,
> But we never will.
> ----------------------------
> Having been erased,
> The document you're seeking
> Must now be retyped.
> ----------------------------
> Serious error.
> All shortcuts have disappeared.
> Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

had a really busy but fun day @ work today and got quite a lot done and most importantly, enjoyed myself while doing it :)... we did a major reorganisation of the store, including moving lots of furniture around, shifting things from one store to the other, checking through all the new supplies (from a bunch of new art and stationery suppliers) that came into the store, setting up new school appointments to do painting and craft demos, planning new strategies for the shop, etc etc.. really felt excited about how things are changing as we grow wiser and pick up more experience in how to run a business.. (ahem.. business acumen... :p)

realised for me how important it is to actually enjoy what i do, even if the money and making a living is still the main reason why i'm are doing it.. if it is just purely for money, working will probably become just a pastime that i get paid for, that takes care of my basic needs like eating, drinking, sleeping- and spending money. but then again, i know i can't imaging getting up in the morning to do something for 8 hours (a third of a day) that i don't feel anything about nor feel i am contributing in... sometimes, i really do get a little tired of people complaining about how they have lost interest in what they are doing or how boring work is or the like but they don't seem to want to do anything about it.... makes me want to rebutt them with something like "Why don't you try finding something you enjoy doing??" admittedly, work isn't always fun but surely, complaining isn't going to help, eh?

maybe this article on "How to work better, how to enjoy your work more, how to get into your work and make it a flow experience" puts everything into a new perspective?

alb gave me a thick copy of Travel Manual - Malaysia (it has more than 200 pages filled with beautiful photographs and information!) that he picked up from Bugis Junction just now and i'm now totally taken with the idea of visiting Sabah! i think it might just be the ideal holiday..

Imagine climbing Mount Kinabalu (4093m SE Asia's highest mountain) at the start of the trip, then trekking through Kinabalu National Park and visiting swiftlet-infested caves and maybe visiting a village or two; and finally diving Layang-Layang or Sipadan at the end of the whole trip! :D wouldn't that be amazing??

i just love holidays that combine travelling, diving, trekking and lots and lots of photography!!

any takers for this trip? :) ... don't know when i'll be going though... umm... :p

response to my online donation drive has been absolutely dismal...so far, only Kai has come forward and she is contributing a miserable $0.01 for every kilometre i run.. which translates to a grand total of $1.00 (!) if i run 100km - my target distance.. sigh...

either no one believes i can actually run that distance or no one loves animals.. :(

what the heck, i'll do it just for Oakley dollars then.... hmph... (note the bitterness in my tone...)

didn't mention that my precious pair of Oakleys zeros was snitched during tioman dive trip..:(... left it carelessly in my dive bag in dive centre and came back to realise it had been taken.. case and all..very sad 'cos was one of the major expenses over the last three months.. :( .... in my moment of grief, i declared to myself that i must replace it with a similar pair or be forever grieving..... but then i came back to singapore, sat around and thought about it more, and came up with something else altogether ...

instead of just going out and spending another huge amount on another one, i decided to use a reward system to get it.. i have decided to start a virtual "piggy bank" where i will deposit $2 for every kilometre i run.. and i will not get my Oakleys until i get enough in this piggy bank.. which means i have to run... more than 100 kilometres! :O ...what the heck, i reckon it's time i push myself to make my running more regular anyway ..

and to give it a charity twist, i have decided to get "supporters" for this event who are willing to contribute any amount for every kilometre i run.. and i will give the money collected to my favourite charity -SPCA! :) oh well, just giving it a shot.. if you think you want to contribute, just email (hwee@asia.com) me.. :) i will keep you informed periodically of how far i have run...

oh well, so much for today's blabberings..