The Day After My Dad's Company Family Day

It felt pretty much like a Singaporean going for a Local History lesson yesterday. Here's what we did:

1 - Caught the new Jackie Chan movie Rob-B-Hood. The only memorable thing about the movie is the very adorable baby. And maybe when Louis Khoo called himself "Mummy".

2 - Took the Hippo Bus.

3 - Rode on the Duck Tours boat-cum-road vehicle thingy.

4 - Had a buffet dinner at the Suntec Convention centre sort-of-open-air restaurant Kuali. Terrible food, horrible lack of selection and horrendously overpriced. Never. Ever. Eat. There.

5 - Rode on the DHL Helium Balloon thingy. QUite fun to see the city skyline from a floating balloon. Kind scary though.

More pics coming up after I've uploaded them. Keep an eye out for it at my Flickr.

We've got exactly a month from the A levels. 30 DAYS, PEOPLE!!! Mugging time!

PS: It's Emmanuel's Birthday today! Happy Birthday and Happy Childrens' Day to you (if you're even reading this)! :)

The Day I Introduce Frank Cho

There's nothing really to talk about school today. That's how mundane my remaining school-days in JC has become. Sigh.

Anyway,I wanna introduce my favourite artist at the moment to the readers of my blog. His name is Frank Cho, a nursing graduate who,in a twist of fate, became one of the most reknown and sought after artist in the American comic industry. He is currently under an exclusive contract with Marvel Comics. Here are a few samples of his artwork from his creator-owned comic strip, Liberty Meadows:





- Copyright of Frank Cho and Liberty Meadows -

He draws amazing women! For more information on Frank and his works, please visit his website at Liberty Meadows.

The Day I Get A Friendship Band

Tammi made this for Jiapei, Shaun and me! :D



She's such a doll! ;)

The Day After Tom Yum And Chit-Chat

It was nice ahnging out with Jiapei and Shaun yesterday.





More tonight!

The Day I Talk About The Idol Finals

It's so much nicer to watch the show from home. In fact, I'm thankful I didn't go watch it at the Indoor Stadium. Can you imagine the commotion? *shudders*

I'm very happy with the top 2 we've got this year, so it doesn't really matter who wins cos whoever is crown the Singapore Idol will be deserving. Hady and Jonathan both have their individual strengths when it comes to performing afterall.

And I must add that the new song written for this year's finals is as cheesy as any other Idol finale song. But I kinda like it. Hehe.

But if I really have to make a choice, I'd pick Hady cos he's the better singer and I like his tone and style better. Anyway, I think that Jonathan has the looks, charisma, a unique voice, and certainly the X-Factor that makes him stand out from the crowd, so I like him too. But I can already imagine listening to Hady on a CD.

Whatever the results are tomorrow, I'm a happy for both of them. They deserved to be where they were tonight. Hopefully they'll survive in the local music industry.

The Day Queenie's Babies Died

It's all my fault that they're dead

It's my fault for not knowing she's pregnant
It's my fault for not noticing her erratic behavior
It's my fault for being out when she was in labour
It's my fault for not being there when they fell out of the cage
It's my fault for not being able to save them

I'm sorry
I'm so so sorry...

Forrest could have been a father today.

I'm sorry...

The Day I Meet Up With My MI Mates

Going to meet up with the MI gang now!
Whee~~

The excitement... :D

I'm surprised that I'm actually feeling awake. Heh heh...

The Day I Share Some Cute Ads

I'm video surfing YouTube while nursing an incurable insomnia. Found some really funny videos. Here, take a look:


Always do it safe. Or regret.


Babe or Beer?


Power Rangers acting as stupid as they look


Eating your fist = Eating Carl's Jr?


Do it yourself or we can do it for you!


Pseudo fellatio

Enjoy! :)

The Day I Get Antagonised By Little Koreans

NEWSFLASH!

I just realised that I actually have Korean neighbours. Well, they're new, so I'm not completely at fault for not knowing that they existed.

While I was completing my 50th lap in the pool today (equivalent to 12.5 laps in the Olympic pool), two little Asian kids, a boy and a girl that I've never seen before, plopped into the water and started splashing around. Initially,I ignored them and continued to do my own thing until the girl asked "Hello, how are you?" and the boy tugged at my feet (I dunno how he did that) and asked "Are you Korean or Japanese?"

I was stunned.

After trying my best to explain to them that I'm chinese and nicely telling them to leave me alone (to no avail), the kids would not give me a rest. I managed to complete a few laps successfully, then the kids started to splash water at me (not that I could feel anything while being submerged, but it was distracting) and screaming a mix of simple English and Korean that sounded completely illogical to me.

Eg. "(Korean blah blah)...listening...(Korean blah blah)...you stay house...(more Korean blah blah)"

And what was mummy dearest doing all these while when I was being viciously ravaged by her offspring? Yakking away on her handphone by the pool. Their Phillipino domestic helper (a nicer way to say "maid") was helpless; she just stood there mumbling "Ok la, enough enough ok?" (like the kids could hear her).

Finally after what seemed like eternity, Korean-Mummy ended her call and came over to attempt appeasing her children in a similar manner as her domestic helper. LIKE, WHAT THE HELL? I was thinking, you're their mum and you don't even dare to raise your voice to discipline your kids?! I decided that I've had enough and I got out of the pool. Korean-Mummy looked meekly at me and bowed with an equally meek "Thank you".

I just smiled.

The Day The Prelims Ended

The prelims are officially over.

However, I'm not feeling any sense of relief though. I guess with the A levels overshadowing us and the clock counting down the days and minutes before the final exams, relief is only a faraway possibility.

But anyway, I'm gonna give myself a break from the books for the next two days before I start to charge full-speed towards The End. This break is for me so that I won't go thinking "Hey I need a break" during my A Level prep because I've already had one.

It's make or break, and I'm pretty sure nobody wants to break.

On a lighter note, I've been feeling rejuvenated after dealing with my own emotional problems. It's funny how much a burden emotional issues can be to us, yet we don't usually realise it until we hit breaking point. So here's my new motto: Positivity beats the shit out of negativity any time.

Stay cheerful and always look on the bright side! There's always a bright side to everything; We just gotta find a way to see it. Remember, depression's a killer.

The Day Rain Ruined My Laundry

I HATE THE BLOODY WEATHER!!!

The sky looked fine with heavenly sunshine and cottony clouds, so I put out my laundry for a long-overdue baking session. Mum always insists that the laundry smells funny without drying in the sun, so being the good son that I am, I carried the clothes from the carpark to the garden.

In a blink of an eye, dark clouds gathered and before I knew it, it was pouring. By the time I got to my laundry, the clothes were wet and I was wet as well. Bloody hell!

Moral of the story:
Convince mum and dad to get a clothes dryer or else...

The Day I Talk About Anger & Forgiveness

I realised that all this time, what has been affecting me was my anger and my inability to forgive. Sure, I say that I’ve forgotten about what’s happened and that I’ve laid the past to rest (and all the other stuff), but that’s crap.

But honestly, I haven’t.

I was angry. I kept telling myself that “I’m entitled to feeling this way”, and that it’d make me seem stronger, to protect myself. But being angry is tiring and emotionally draining. Without knowing it, I’ve let my resentment and my sadness evolve into this uncontrollable creature. But that’s in the past now. Today, I’ve decided to out an end to this and to move on with my life.

Anger is a selfish act of defense. By putting on a barbed front, we assume that we’ll be safe from emotional harm. In reality, it’s a double-edged sword; we hurt others and we get hurt as well. As a matter of fact, the amount of pain we inflict upon ourselves far surpasses the amount of pain we bring to others. Is it really worth it when it come to that?

The Lord teaches us to forgive, and after the homily at the Novena today, it really hit me that I haven’t been doing that. Bearing grudges is unhealthy. So I told myself, “Just let it go.” I’ve learnt that pain can only ebb away when you let time do it’s job. And having a grudge, or holding on to a negative emotion, is just going to make keep scars wide open.

I have had people tell me to “forgive and forget”, but I believe that there’s no such thing as forgiving and forgetting; I can forgive, but I cannot forget. Some things just can’t be forgotten, you know. You need to always keep it in mind so that you don’t make the same mistakes again.

So I’ve forgiven. And I’m moving on.

The Day I Talk About The Sunset Era of Reality TV

One paper left! WHEE~~ :D

I’m (almost) a happy boy!

I can’t believe that we’ve finished most of our papers within the past four days. But anyway, it’s kind of a relief that the mock battle’s almost over. Now, it’s time to really start worrying for the A’s. Tick tock tick tock.

I was thinking about how I’ve grown up through my adolescence with reality tv as a major motivating factor in my life. So I’ve decided to dedicate the rest of this post to my take on the current state of reality television.

Here are my views:

In Singapore, way before the rise of the imported American reality shows, we had our Asia Bagus and Talentime as our local source of entertainment and a platform for instant fame. Reality Television reached the peak of it’s hype in early 2000, with Survivor reigning as google-box king. Then came The Amazing Race, Fear Factor, Joe Millionaire (remember that one?) and American Idol. These shows propelled unknowns into overnight stardom; it seemed that any Tom, Dick or Harry could easily become the next up-and-coming star.

The biggest impact, it seemed, came from American Idol. The Idol format originated in Britain as Pop Idol, and promised a lucrative recording contract as well as recognition for the winner. When the Fox network in America decided to give the show a shot (and renaming it American Idol at the same time), but little did they know that they kick-started a global phenomenon.

34 countries from all over the globe snapped up the show’s format and re-branded it “(insert country’s name here) Idol”, signaling a new era for music and reality tv. However, four years down the road, the phenomenon seems to be headed for an end. Here are some examples:

America:
Among the five Idol winners, only Kelly Clarkson seems to be commercially successful after cleverly choosing to breakaway (yes, pun here) from any connections with the show. Ruben, Fantasia, Carrie and Taylor have yet to make headlines any commercial success, other than the mandatory release of the winner’s single, which usually chart at #1.

Australia:
Winners include (in chronological order) Guy Sebastian, Casey Donovan and Katie DeAraugo. Guy is the only winner with two albums under his belt and is having a healthy career. Casey has been dropped by her label (Sony BMG) due to image problems and Katie is touring in a quartet of all-ex-Australian-Idol-girls under the name Young Divas. Sure says a lot about their success post-Idol.

The lack of success of the Idol alumni reflect one obvious message that the public is sending: viewership fatigue. The commodification of celebrityhood and the non-stop churning of singers/wannabe-singers are putting a strain on the cd-buying, tv-watching public. Similarly in Singapore, the market is also experiencing oversaturation by winners (and several runner-ups) from shows like Singapore Idol, Project Superstar, Superband etc.

If rumours are to be believed, this current season of Singapore Idol would also be the final season of the show, reason being that the viewership has suffered a drastic reduction from season one. That may be attributed to the fact that there is viewer fatigue because of the over-saturation of shows following similar formats (unknowns sing, viewers watch, viewers vote. more singing/acting/hosting, more watching, more voting... Do that ten times over and it even eventually becomes less watching, less voting = loss in profits).

Fear Factor has been cancelled; Survivor’s sponsor of 12 seasons, GM, pulls out of their sponsorship deal before the 13th season of the show. Truth is, the era of reality tv is waning, and the era of singing-competitions-that-pose-as-celebrity-makers is reaching an end. Well, like the old saying goes, “all good things come to an end.”

It was nice while it lasted.

The Day Of The Econs Prelims

Gonna be having Econs at 2.30pm later this afternoon, so here's a quick update.

Time really flies when you're busy with exams. Unknowingly, we have written so many essays/DRQs within the short span of three days. Yesterday, after our 6 hours worth of papers, Mel, Cassandra, Meifeng and I gave a number to the essays and DRQs we've done from Tuesday to Thursday:

Essays: 9
DRQs: 12
Total: 21

Stupid combi and stupid timetabling. Thank God the timetable for the A's isn't as closely spaced out as this. My left hand is suffereing sympathy pains for my right hand. Ow... Anyway, two more papers to go and I'm a free man (until the A's, that is).

Sigh.

Random moment of the day
Lee Hom will be having his 盖世英雄 (Heroes of The Earth) Tour in Singapore on the 21st of October, two weeks before the A's. Should I or should I not go?

Gotta go now. Mug mug mug.. Shall blog more after Econ's.

The Day We Took Our Geog Prelims

Ok, here's a quick update:

Geog (Physical) Prelims = Killer = We're all gonna die (Think Nightmare on Elm Street). Hopefully they'll be less harsh on us when it comes to the Human Geog paper. Hopefully.

Coming up tomorrow:
- Lit Paper 1
- Econs DRQ & Case Study
- Econs MCQ

Gotta run!

PS: Joss Whedon is the new writer taking over Brian K Vaughn on Runaways! This is the only piece of good news I've gotten today. I'm a happy boy.

The Day I Watched I Am Sam And Talk About Love & Loving

Last night, Channel 5 aired "I Am Sam", the 2001 bawl-fest starring Sean Penn as Sam, a mentally handicapped father who is fighting for the custody of his seven-year-old daughter, Lucy (played by Dakota Fanning). Michelle Pfeiffer also stars as Rita, the acerbic lawyer who grows a heart and learns compassion while fighting for his case.

The most important theme of the movie is selfless love. A man with the intellect less than a seven-year-old is able to love someone so wholeheartedly, just like how children are able to love without question or hesitation. The question then, is, are we really better off than somebody like that? Is our capacity to love lesser because we have the intellect of a normal person?

In the show, Sam is always very conscious about and fascinated by colours and visuals of the things around him. He is incredibly empathetic, and he has no qualms about showing affection. Sometimes, we get so caught up with our lives, and while doing our own things, and being weighed down with our materialistic wants, we forget to slow down and to look at the world around us and admire it's beauty, and to be truly thankful for what we have. I know that, because I myself behave in such a manner sometimes.

Loving is to cherish the ones you hold dear, be it your family or your friends, and it is also about showing affection and appreciation to them. Children can love unconditionally and unwaveringly, so why can't we, as grown ups, love the same way as well? One reason could be that our society today does not encourage empathy. On the contrary, we are taught to fight for our endless wants since day one, and unknowingly, we become people who are constantly consumed with negativity, feeling more hatred and dislike than satisfaction and appreciation.

Love is not limited by intellect afterall. So, it is not impossible for us to love like children do. Love does not demand alot from us; We just need a heart. Having empathy would be a plus.

The Day Of Mugging And Meeting Up With My Best Friend

Today has been a rather productive day. I'm finally halfway through Econs! Went to IHM (The Church of The Immaculate Heart of Mary) for a service celebrating one of the nun's 50th year in the service. After long speeches, we finally had lunch. Met up with Jerome (and his sis Claudia) during the celebration.

Here are some products of our camwhoring:


Claudia & Me


Smiling like a buffoons


The 3 lunatics

Went to Starbucks at Liang Court to study in the evening while waiting for my parents to finish with their tehze session at church. Mugging alone never felt better.



I love Starbucks


I really love Starbucks


I look constipated in this.







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Since I'm on a random streak today, I've decided to introduce my dumb little rabbit, Forrest, again. He's the world's most furry, messy and playful gray furball. And he's really cute too.


Here he is! In case you're wondering, the little pellets in the foreground are not his excretion; they're his rabbit feed.

Here's Forrest playing it up in front of the camera! He looooves the limelight..



And that's it for today's update.
52 Days to the A Levels...

The Day I Talk About Druggies

I vaguely remember that November last year, I commented on the death sentence of Australian Nguyen Tuong Van in Singapore because of drug smuggling. In this past week, another 4 Australians have received the same death sentence for a similar offence, only this time, they are being held in Indonesia.

You may wonder why, after so many harrowing cases of unsuccessful drug dealing, that people still resort to doing it? Did they really think that Indonesia wouldn't punish as severely as Singapore did? Have they simply forgotten about the amount of trouble Australian model Michelle Leslie got into for possessing Ecstasy in Bali less than a year ago?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a segment of the Narcotics Drugs Act in Australia, stating the punishment for drug possession and drug dealing:

NARCOTIC DRUGS ACT 1967 - SECT 20 Punishment of offences

(1) A person who contravenes or fails to comply with a provision of this Part is guilty of an offence against this Part punishable upon conviction by, subject to subsection (3), a fine not exceeding Four thousand dollars or imprisonment not exceeding a period of ten years, or both a fine not exceeding that amount and imprisonment for a period not exceeding that period.

(2) An offence against this Part may be prosecuted summarily or upon indictment, but an offender is not liable to be punished more than once in respect of the same offence.

(3) Where proceedings for an offence against this Part are brought in a court of summary jurisdiction, the court may commit the defendant for trial or, with the consent of the defendant, determine the proceedings, but, where the court of summary jurisdiction determines the proceedings, the court shall not impose a fine exceeding One thousand dollars or sentence the offender to imprisonment for a period exceeding two years, but may impose both a fine and a period of imprisonment in respect of the offence.

(courtesy of http://www.austlii.edu.au/)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This brings to question the power of the Australian government in curbing narcotic problems of the country. Why do they always have to resort to pleas for lighter punishment (in the case of their citizens being sentenced to capital punishment), which are usually to no avail? Is there something that they can do about it? Have they noticed that there has been an increasing trend of drug taking? Or are they just closing one eye.

Apparantly, many Australian youths don't see a problem with drugs. They think that it's just an alternative lifestyle that should be available to everyone. I reckon proper education should be given on narcotic drugs. The line between democracy and bureaucracy is blurred. You give your people freedom to choose their lifestyles, they're bound to abuse certain rights and cause social problems. The case in point: drug smuggling.

Maybe it's because I'm brought up in Singapore. I just think that liberty should be eraned, not freely given. Adn a druggie lifestyle should never ever be condoned.

The Day I Marvel At My Blunder

25 hours without sleep
It's a record
Time is still ticking

I'm lost and I'm confused
I don't know what you want from me
I don't know if you're using me
I don't know why this is how you're treating me
I don't know what I can really believe
I don't know anything anymore

If you want me to trust you
To believe in your words
You have to be true
And be honest
Is it that difficult to do?

I've never lied to you
Or tried to hurt you in any way
I always thought you were who you appeared to be
Now I'm not so sure anymore

Does it make you happy to do this?
To play with feelings
Toying emotions like a puppet-master
Does it?

I don't know what to think
What to feel about this
But I hope that if you still want me as a friend
I need honesty and dependability

The Day After "The Devil Wears Prada"

The movie was wonderful, with a dependable cast of capable actresses and a strong storyline. The show stealer was definitely and undeniably Meryl Streep, whose portrayal of the acid-tongued, ice-hearted Runway Editor Miranda Priestly was so real you'd think she actually exists.

Or so the author (Lauren Weisberger) says.

I heard from the grapevine that Miranda's modelled after the notorious former Vogue Editor-In-Chief, Anna Wintour. Both real-life and reel-life personas are of uncanny similarity and appearance, so I guess it isn't really coincidence, eh?

Here's a short synopsis of the movie:

The movie centres around the novel's protagonist, Andy "Andrea" Sachs (Anne Hathaway), a fresh graduate who in a twist of fate, ends up as Miranda Priestly's second assistant. From that point, we see the growth of a girl who begins with absolutely no knowledge about fashion whatsoever, to a sizzling fashonista (well, almost) who finally learns about the cruelty of the real world and what she wants in life.

The supporting cast did a great job in making this movie a success as well. Look out for Emily Blunt as Emily (yes her character has the same name as herself), the jumpy first-assistant and mentor to the clueless Andy, and Simon Baker as Christian Thompson, the manipulative charmer who falls for Andy as she progresses into the world of fashion.

It's a movie that brand freaks cannot miss (yes I'm talking to you Emmanuel). All the big brands like Prada, Valentino, Jimmy Choo, Calvin Klein etc etc sonsored their products for this show, so you know you're gonna see some really nice clothes.

- End of synopsis -

Did close to 9 hours of revision today (I'm quite proud of myself heh heh...) and had a nice, de-stressing swim in the evening. I love my pool! :D

It's exactly a week away from the prelims. Sigh...
56 Days to the first A Level Paper!

Time to die people, time to die...

The Day We Went To The Botanic Gardens

I haven't stepped into the Botanic Gardens since I was god-knows-how young. And I had a really good time there yesterday with my parents and Xavier + Shelia, my two almost-angelic widdle cousins. I say almost, cos they sure as hell aren't anywhere near "angelic". Heh.


The entrance of the Botanic Gardens

It's all revamped and beeeeaaaaaauuuutifuuuul now. It's like stepping into another world. I'm serious. God knows how much money they've pumped in to give that shabby old park a makeover. But who's complaining? I'm glad they did.



Another angle of the entrance

Yet another proof of the Garden's magnificence. 'Nuff said.



Mum and the 2 kids

The air was so fresh! And we saw Wong Li Lin jogging and pushing her baby girl in a pram! She was my very first object of fantasy when I was in primary school you know. Heh. From what I've heard, smokers need to spend at least 8 hours at a place like this to get the bad air out of their system. Then again, if you tink about it, why would smokers need to detox if they're just gonna start puffing again after detoxing? Hmmm.



At the bridge facing the Swan Pool

Isn't the scenery beautiful? (Ok how many times have I already said that?) It is. Minus the kids and my mum (no offense, mother), it'd be a perfect scene.



The Cactus Garden

They have installed this new feature to the Garden, which is really amazing cos you'll get to see a variety of cactus species. It's really educational for kids and a sight not to be missed. You can say that it's a whole lotta thorns in my eye! (It's a pun, get it? Get it? Hahahahahahahaha...)



The Vanda Miss Joaquim - Our National Flower

I'm such a budding photographer eh? They made a maze-like thing out of these Orchids. It's really amazing. I have no idea how they did it, but did it. You won't believe it till you see it.



THE Shade

This is where I first learned how to walk, or so my dad told me. I have no memories whatsoever of walking here as a toddler. I guess my brain hadn't developed yet.



The Evolution Garden

The Evolution Garden (TEvG) is located at an end of the Garden. It gives a visual presentation of the evolution of the Earth from the beginning. There were also volunteer Tour Guides of TEvG present on site to bring visitors around and explaining the formation of the Earth, the beginning of life, how plants came about etc etc. Took about 2 hours but it was really insightful.

You. Cannot. Miss. This.