HAPPY BIRTHDAY KUM!

Life can only be that good if you have that little blood in your body. –grumble inwardly-

I just had an overdosage of Hello Kitty just by checking out Ass’s blog just now. I spasmed for a little, I think. Though I thought the layout to be better than the previous one. Ah ha ha.

I’m in denial mode – Noooooo… My colleagues from my team are trickling back to the office.

I saw something that irritated the hell out of me this morning. What’s up with some guys, really!? I don’t mean to be racist; but – there’s this indian guy who rushed to an available seat on the MRT, when he was initially standing with his wife/girlfriend/female friend, some distance away from his gleaming beckoning seat. He settled into his seat with a smug/satisfied smirk on his silly face, when I was just standing in front of the then-empty seat, with absolute no intention to play snatch-a-chair with him. I looked up from the magazine I was reading and at him dully, disgusted at his lack of dignity and manliness. Then his wife/girlfriend/female friend stood before him shortly after, looking as if she expected his behaviour to be so.

YUCKS!!!!

Not only he rushed to the empty seat like a kiasu ah-soh (somehow, if he is a kiasu ah-soh, I would have understand), he let his wife/girlfriend stand before him while he sits for the entire train ride!!

Or maybe I’m pampered by JX – JX lets me sit if there is an available seat or that both of us not sit. I’m not saying it’s a right of females to get to sit while the guys stand over them la, but it’s like a bonus to know how sweet they can be and it definitely reflects the magnitude of a guy who graciously gives up his seat to any female – pregnant or old or not!

(Yes, sleep did make the humongous zits go down.)

I just read Kay's blog and apparently she's very offended by an undergrad from the ARTS faculty. And I am offended by her blog. Because I'm from the ARTS. I'm no good in the Sciences. I like Biology, but I can't do Physics nor Chemistry for nuts. And the education system made it in a way that students can only take up Biology with either Chemistry or Physics. I struggled at them when I was in secondary school, so why bother struggle some more in JC? I prefer to write, I prefer reading Geography. I like reading and Literature. My interests are in Arts not Sciences. And I believe in pursuing what I like to study. And not because I think studying something can make me go far in life. Because I for sure, wouldn't want to go work in something I do not like. So why bother make studying a more torturous ordeal? Because I know that graduates often than not work in very different fields in relation to their degrees. And I see my aunt, with a Geography honours degree, working in an Investment company, and earning big bucks. She said study what you are interested in, because work is another matter altogether anyway. What you need is Opportunity in work. Other people may beg to differ and they have their own rights to choosing what they want to do in University, may it be for their interests, or for their future. I don't deny that at one point of time, I regretted studying English and Sociology. Because I do not know where to go, what to apply for jobs when I had just graduated. I realised, in dismay, that my degree is too general. And no company is willing to take you in with just that and without any experience. But yah, I realised, you can climb your way up after you infiltrate into the company. (ok, that's another topic) But doing Arts, either by choice or not, doesn't mean that we're stupid.

I'm not agreeing with the silly girl who offended Kay and her friend by implying that Maths or Sciences people do not know how to communicate or know how to speak fluently or nicely or whatever. That's her own warped way of categorizing people in different faculties. And she spoke with much bluntness and ignorance too. We can't run away from stereotyping. Even in a lecture hall, a lecturer has subcategorized his own lecture-hall-full of students into faculties and said, "Science students are ok. They know their facts because they ask. Engineering students too. They are very technical. But Arts students, they're stupid. They just whacked around hoping to hit one right spot. There's a lot of smoke. They do not question, they do not respond in a lecture." or something to that extent saying that Art students are retards. Needless to say, it got most of us very ruffled up.

No one likes discrimination. And there isn't a need for throwing people into categories in a society. It's always the lack of understanding that spews out such remarks. The silly girl thinks Sciences or Maths students can't speak properly (yes, and that seems really stupid). And for that, it seems discerning.

But back to what Kay has got to say in her blog. Arts students being arty farty. I don't even know what's the real definition of being arty farty. And to admit being ok with Sciences or Maths, makes them less arty farty? Pretend to be arty farty? I don't deny that there are some phony ones. And I do think that my sister is weirdly arty farty. And I couldn't really stand it either. Because she thinks that her taste is high-class, while any who differs from her - well, they're just, plainly tasteless. She speaks with a phony accent too (which she speaks that way 24/7 - so she's prolly getting used to her own phony accent). She huffs at any one who dresses shabbily or has a weird coordination of colours/top and bottom/stripes and prints/whatever. She irritates the hell out of me but she manages to find her own bunch of (arty farty &/or tolerant) friends. So she lives her own. The arty farty, (more) colourful, better world.

I'm offended, Kay, because you're no different from the silly girl to make snide comments about anyone from a particular faculty. Do I think my English is ok? I think I'm ok, I did English for my degree. I somewhat know how the language English originates, I know Singlish is a proper language (though developing). But we do not learn how to speak properly, or with a phony accent, or vocabulary for that matter (there are some students who took up English as a specialised degree, who can't speak English fluently because they're foreigners). Not for any module in the Arts faculty - they don't teach you that. So it's everyone's misconception that Arts students are supposedly to be good in English. They are just the way they are even before they go into the University.

I get mildy irritated with people who think that Arts modules are airy fairy or easy. It might be so, as compared to other faculties modules. But we have theories, we have facts too. Some theories are scientific, some theories are mathematical too. And we represent our Sociological findings with evidences. What do other people know about that?

A few black sheep do not represent the whole herd. In Arts or in Science or in Maths. Or Engineering, for that matter. No one's stupid, it's just that they have their calling in different areas - different from you.

Did I mention ZITS in the last blog???

I have 2 huge zits on my chin now!!!!!!!!!! WTH! Those that look like red molehills! Nothing to squeeze! Those that you think maybe there's something if I try squeezing it, and you try but only send painful tears springing to your eyes and making the molehill look like a mini volcano threatening to erupt. But it won't erupt. But I guess you could keep trying. Till it spurts blood. And you regret ever touching it cos it looks even worse.

Oh, I want to pop it! -screech-

It's just that rush of pleasure and triumph after getting a pimple pop. Better still if the pus shoots out and splatter on the mirror. Bwahahahaha. Then you wipe the gunk off the mirror with a smirk. Or a huge blackhead. Waaa... A war won.

But the zits I have on my chin now are such bores. I can't do anything to them. No picking, no pinching, no squeezing, no scratching. Damn, they're gleaming at me triumphantly and smugly for being able to plant themselves on my chin. Grrr... I just have to... w.....a....i....t...... for them to d..i...s..a....p..p..e.....a....r........

Dya think they'll go away if I sleep early tonight? Maybe they'll shrink.

Hm! Night!

I’ve been having such bad bouts of headaches. I don’t know why. People who watch the World Cup through the nights are fine, why me? The headaches are getting really bad. Pounding the sides of my head seems to alleviate the pain a little…

And I don’t feel like working at all.

Did I say that I love reading “Zits”? Meet the characters.

Wacky. :)

I often walk through a particular block in Ang Mo Kio, with a shiver of terror that went through my entire body. What I had seen around that particular area, either early in the morning, or late at night, was the cause of my horror and nasty images that went through my mind. What did I see exactly...?
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A used pad strewn on the ground floor.

REALLY!.. Oh, the horror!!!

Each time I saw it, my whole body went up in mini-convulsion. Okay, it's not like I have not seen my own before. But what! Thrown out from the toilet window and all splayed out in the public for all to see!! Yah, it has wings, but it sure can't fly for nuts??! The floor even has some weird dark stains which I tried to curb my mind from imagining what could they have been. And more prominently, some portions of the pink sticky parts of the pad have stubbornly stuck themselves onto the ground (and I try not to think that the poor cleaner for that block may have to bend over and rip it off from the ground). **I think it might have been Kotex brand cos it's pink. Whisper has blue pads. The more in use brands are these so I deduce that it is Kotex.

So, I am very afraid that every time I step out of that particular block, a used pad is actually free-falling towards my head. ...EEEEEEE..!!! I even go think, "When I'm on my way to work, she could just have woken up and changing her used sanitary napkin; and when I'm on my way home, she could have just returned home and changing her pad again...!!"

So I tried my best to not walk that particular area which I often see the bloody sight.

That woman must be crazy. Either that, she finds it amusing looking out of the toilet window and see people looking around and above themselves furtively while walking around that block. One helluva inconsiderate crazy woman.

Is there no way that we can track which unit the crazy woman is staying???

I really detest those people who push and shove other passengers in a train or a bus while they shift to the exits, before the train/bus reaches the destination and open the damn doors.

Hey, use your damn brain, if the train/bus is already packed, what makes you think that you'll have the space when you reach near the exits? You only irritate the hell out of the people near the exits because it's already damn squashed up and you just had to snake into the squash while leaving a void behind somewhere. And people do not shuffle quick enough for the irritants to get to the exits.

A few steps ahead of your life won't save much time from your death!!! Like, let the people near the exits get outta the train/bus and you can snake your way out of the train/bus! With grace!

And it's not even just the kiasu aunties who act in this manner. What's the matter with these people?

AND!!! This @#%!+?~#@ JERK in the train stomped on my poor little right second toe (cos it's the longest and prolly sticking out of my open-toe-heels) as he tried to balance himself the moment the train started.

WHAAAAAAAAATTTTT THE FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRKKKKKK!!!!

FUCKING PAIN!!! My toes instantly crunched up, my face contorted and flushed to a bright red (I presume cos I felt HOT at once). People around me looked at me cautiously as if they were looking at a pimple bursting to pop.

All my friends, you know why my toenails are perpetually painted? IT'S COS OF THESE STUPID PEOPLE WHO JUST CAN'T STOP STOMPING ON MY TOES AS IF THEY'RE TOO UGLY TO BE TOES!!!

And so, a couple (maybe three now) of my toenails are kinda, black. And they won't grow out, nor drop off.

Back to the train, after I swallowed my yelp of pain, I stared daggers at the guy with ill-balance who caused my toe to throb like it has a heart of its own.

WA!! Don't even turn around to acknowledge that a toe has been stepped! Don't say sorry never mind, not even a sympathetic or apologetic look! FUCKER!!

I cursed at him under my breath as I looked at him stumble away as if he was walking against a tornado, cos he was walking in the different direction of the train's.

I hope all his toes rot and fall off.

And then he would have a worse sense of balance without his toes. Ha.Ha.Ha.

...ARGH!!!

....MY poor toes...

Looks like I got to stock up on some nail polish...

Or maybe fake toenails...

The Da Vinci Code (finally)

"It's not right," I thought. "It's just not right!" I shifted restlessly in my chair and I just felt uncomfortable.

As I looked at the screen, craning my neck to the right, as I was seated right at the extreme left of the cinema theatre (yes, the theatre is still full despite 3 weeks into screening!), I just couldn't find the wrong element that made me so uncomfortable.

And then I pinpointed that Tom Hanks, do not fit the character of Robert Langdon at all.

He seemed rather, flaccid. At least, what I perceived from the book, Robert Langdon was a charming intellect. Balding wasn't in my mind. Tom Hanks could look like an intellect, but er, looking at him in this show, made me relate to the show Cast Away. An intellect no less (how else he would have survived?), having a bloodied volleyball as his bestest friend. Some credit to his creativity too, Wilson-the-volleyball-turned-best-pal had quite a hairstyle. But charming intellect, he fall short a little. Not for Robert Langdon, I say.

So I and my boy started to come up with the possible candidates in Hollywood who could play Robert Langdon's role. Not easy, actually. Not many male stars in Hollywood come across as intellectuals even.

No, not even those who acted as James Bond.

The one who comes the closest is...

Keanu Reeves.

Really! Look, he has acted in Devil's Advocate, in Constantine, and in The Matrix. All are something to do with devils, angels, heaven and hell and for The Matrix, something very out of this world itself. He's perpetually moody and for that he seemed deep. Unfathomable. And in the Devil's Advocate, he acted as a lawyer, quite convincingly. And charmingly. So he could still pull off as a professor. Now, imagine him with spectacles. He can look like a professor! And a charming one to add.

Overall, the movie was rather a disappointment. Nothing that I expected it out to be. Go read the book la. And the movie, I don't know exactly, but it seemed like it wanted to inject some objectivity into the Christianity and Paganism issues. Like it will lessen the controversial part of it.

Too fast-paced. In the show, it was like Robert Langdon's a genius cos the answers just plonked down on him suddenly. Too much luck. A little slipshod, and too much cut-away portions of the story.

BOOOOOO....

I say, the show's a mega-hit, only because it was banking on Dan Brown's controversial book.

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On the side note, I believe in some sense about the Sacred Feminine. Paganism. And that in the past, people prolly worshipped nature and balance in the world. Because I believe, that the world is created out of balance. There's no one true entity that could exist on its own, and have any true meaning to it. Like, you only know the meaning of happiness, when there's sadness. The existence of male is supported by the existence of female, vice versa. Ying and Yang. Up and down, left and right.

The balance in the world is all off. Our believes in male supremity, all women included, are evident. Women partake activities that predominantly male, like work and politics, and vacate the female roles. Females becoming 'Male'. Male - Egoism - Power - War. Indeed, the downfall of Mankind, will be our very own destruction.

Birthday with my buddies...

A little belated, I know. It's already June, goodness. But again, I would want to look back at this blog decades later. And not wonder where did my friends go during my 23rd birthday.

It wasn't grand or whatever. We had Mac's and then went to Gecko Cafe (or Cafe Gecko-whatever) [ok, Kum has confirmed that it is Cafe Iguana. Erm, I just knew that it was some reptile. Lizard or Iguana. Muahahahaha...] at Clarke Quay to have our Mexican fare and humongous strawberry margarita. Overall it was a cosy feel and we were just enjoying each other's company. And I think we went on talking about jobs as usual.

And then, we went to sit at the 'river' (or rather canal) side. And I supposed that's where the sparklers are supposed to come in. (which I actually genuinely had forgotten about it until they started acting too obviously strange behind my back; literally)

But instead I think they conspired to shock me enough to jump into the river with the aid of some little explosive-sounding white bits that were bought in Malaysia. I don't know what they're called, but I remembered throwing them about when I was a kid, relishing in the loud "PIAK"ing noises that jumped unexpecting passerbys.

And in the end, we were throwing those little white bits around carelessly, celebrating my birthday in a 'loud' manner.

And I don't know which one of us started it, but we thought that we make wishes. And then end them off with a resounding PIAK.

I thought that it was the nice and heartwarming part. Cos as we were reciting our wishes out, it's only when we know what each other was thinking...

Only to have Kum to 'wet' the moment a little by saying if the little bits fail to 'explode' in a PIAK, our wishes wouldn't come true.

-_-

And so we ended up throwing the remaining bits with all our might. Call us superstitious or gullible, but maybe we just didn't want to risk it - for all the important things we wish for.

We each went home; and Shilin and I talked for quite a bit on the way home. Reminisced. How we came about to being 'best' friends. A tad silly but somehow we stayed together that way.

An ending note a tad mushy but: I just want them to know that no matter where all of us are and how busy we can get to be, they remain as the closest buddies that I've ever got and will ever have...